Police accused of ignoring threats to man who filmed Hebron shooting

The B’Tselem human rights organization claimed Thursday the Israel Police are turning a blind eye to complaints made by one of its Palestinian volunteers who filmed an IDF soldier shooting a disarmed Palestinian assailant in Hebron in March.

The dovish Israeli NGO said Imad Abu Shamsiyeh received “a number of threatening and disturbing messages on Facebook, including death threats,” relating to his filming of the incident in which Sgt. Elor Azaria shot the supine and wounded attacker.

Azaria is currently on trial for manslaughter.

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

According to B’Tselem, police told Abu Shamsiyeh on Sunday that they were too busy with arrests. The next day, he was told the officer in charge of the case was out of the office. And on Tuesday, another police officer listened to Abu Shamsiyeh’s complaint, but then “ordered him to leave and even threatened to arrest him if he did not.”

Police declined to address all of the group’s allegations, but said that “every complaint that we received on the issue will be addressed by the Israel Police’s West Bank Division.”

The March 24 incident — during which Azaria was filmed shooting Abed al-Fattah Yusri al-Sharif in the head, nearly 15 minutes after al-Sharif was shot during an attempt to stab an IDF soldier in Hebron — and the subsequent trial have deeply divided Israel.

An Israeli soldier was wounded and a second Palestinian attacker was shot dead by soldiers during the attack.

In July, military prosecutors trying the case were provided with security measures in the face of mounting threats and incitement to violence online by supporters of the Azaria.

Four soldiers slated to testify in the case were also given unspecified protection after voicing concerns over their safety, Channel 2 TV reported at the time.

The previous month police detained an Israeli settler for allegedly inciting violence against Azaria’s commander after the officer testified against Azaria in court.

The 34-year-old resident of a settlement in the Samaria region of the West Bank was suspected of “incitement to violence, harassing a witness and insulting a public official” through posts on social media against Maj. Tom Na’aman, police said.

Na’aman provided damning testimony against Azaria, saying al-Sharif posed no threat and that after the shooting Azaria told him: “This terrorist was alive and he had to die.”

After he testified, Na’aman came under immediate attack on social media, with users calling him a “traitor” and saying he should die.

The Judea and Samaria Division, as it is also known after the biblical name for the West Bank, has long been dogged by allegations that they fail to address crimes committed by Israelis against Palestinians.

From 2005 to 2014, the Yesh Din human rights organization said it tracked 1,045 Palestinian complaints against Jewish settlers and found that only 7.4 percent resulted in indictments. From 2013 to 2014, of over 150 complaints filed by Palestinians, only two indictments were made by the Judea and Samaria Police Division.