Man who filmed Hebron shooting says soldier’s backers still threatening him

The B’Tselem volunteer who last year filmed IDF Sgt. Elor Azaria shooting a wounded Palestinian assailant in the West Bank city of Hebron says he has been the target of threats by the soldier’s supporters.

Imad Abu Shamsiyeh told the Haaretz daily on Wednesday that Azaria supporters came to his house earlier this week, yelling and harassing him to change his upcoming court testimony in the manslaughter trial.

A Tel Aviv military tribunal on Wednesday convicted Azaria of manslaughter for shooting dead an incapacitated Palestinian assailant last March, concluding a high-profile trial that deeply divided the country.

Shamsiyeh said he was continuing to receive threats from Azaria supporters online, and requested police protection for himself and his family.

He called Wednesday’s hearing “a test for the judges and for Israeli democracy.”

“It’s clear to me that if I wasn’t there and wasn’t filming, they wouldn’t have believed my testimony,” Shamsiyeh said. “My video embarrassed the Israeli authorities.”

In September, B’Tselem claimed that police were turning a blind eye to Shamsiyeh’s complaints that he was being threatened by supporters of Azaria.

Shamsiyeh at the time said he attempted to file a police complaint on three separate occasions, but was rebuffed each time.

Police dismissed the accusation, and vowed to address his concerns.

Last March, Shamsiyeh filmed Azaria shooting dead Abdel Fattah al-Sharif nearly 15 minutes after the latter had been shot and wounded, as he attempted to stab an IDF soldier at a checkpoint in Hebron.

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Azaria’s trial became a highly charged lightning rod in Israeli public life, with politicians and current and former army generals taking sides supporting or condemning the soldier’s actions.

Many of the army’s top brass, including former defense minister Moshe Ya’alon, and IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot had railed against Azaria’s “unethical” decision to shoot al-Sharif in the head.

As a military tribunal handed down the guilty verdict on Wednesday, hundreds of activists demonstrating in support of Azaria — among them far-right supporters of the Beitar Jerusalem soccer club — clashed with police and border guards dispatched to maintain order.

The judges who convicted Azaria were given police protection after threats were made against the military panel were reportedly posted online.

Throughout the months-long trial, witnesses and military prosecutors trying the case were provided with security measures in the face of mounting threats and incitement to violence online by Azaria supporters.