Medic shot wounded attacker

Elor Azaria, twenty years old, shot dead Abdel Fattah al-Sharif in Hebron after al-Sharif stabbed a soldier. Video showed Azaria shooting the unarmed, badly wounded man in the head.

Court convicted Azaria of manslaughter

In twenty seventeen, a military court found Azaria guilty of manslaughter. He served two-thirds of an eighteen-month sentence before release. The conviction was rare for a soldier's deadly action in the field.

Azaria said he would act the same

After his release, Azaria said he would act exactly the same, because that's how he needed to act. In his pardon request, he called the shooting an operational error.

“I would act exactly the same, because that's how I needed to act.”

President Herzog grants pardon

President Isaac Herzog pardoned Azaria on Saturday, citing time passed and the approaching Yom Kippur holiday. Defence minister Israel Katz recommended the pardon. The military's chief of staff opposed it.

Case divided Israel for a decade

The conviction split the country. Many Israelis supported Azaria during stabbings and attacks. Palestinians and human rights groups called the sentence too lenient. Prosecutors had sought three to five years.

Pardon reignites old tensions

National security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir called the pardon emotional and very happy. Palestinian government minister Issa Karaka had called the original sentence a joke. The divisions once forced a defence minister to resign.

“Cancelling the criminal record of someone who killed a terrorist makes me emotional and very happy.”