Avigdor Liberman
Avigdor LibermanMiriam Alster/Flash 90

Israeli politicians on Friday blasted the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) after its representative criticized the sentencing of soldier Elor Azariya, who was convicted of manslaughter for shooting a wounded terrorist and was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

UN human rights spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said the sentence imposed on Azariya was “excessively lenient.”

"We are deeply disturbed at the lenient sentence given by the Tel Aviv Military Court earlier this week to an Israeli soldier convicted of unlawfully killing a wounded Palestinian in an apparent extrajudicial execution of an unarmed man who clearly posed no imminent threat," she told a news briefing in Geneva.

Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman blasted the comments later on Friday.

"The twisted moral compass of the Human Rights Council is proven yet again. One bullet fired by Azariya at a terrorist is more serious than the millions of bullets that are used to murder innocent people in Syria, Libya, Iraq and Yemen. As usual, it is the Council of Hatred of Israel and not the Human Rights Council," said Liberman.

Former Defense Minister MK Amir Peretz (Zionist Union) responded to the comments on Twitter.

"With all due respect, the decisions of the UN Human Rights Council are not worthy of our moral standards. We believe in the morals and integrity of our courts," wrote Peretz.

Yesh Atid chairman MK Yair Lapid called to end the funding to the UNHRC due to its anti-Israel bias.

“The UN Human Rights Council did not announce today that it is concerned that half a million people were killed in Syria. It is not concerned that Iran hangs LGBTs. Is not worried about car explosions in Iraq. It is not worried about the horrific rapes of Yazidi women. It is not worried about the war in Yemen. It is not concerned that the new chairman of Hamas has killed 12 people with his own hands, nor by the fact that it has once again become clear that members of Hamas, a murderous terror organization, receive salaries from UNRWA, the UN’s refugee organization,” Lapid wrote on Facebook.

“The thing that concerns the UN Human Rights Council is that the punishment handed down to Elor Azariya seemed too light.

“There is only one state in the entire Middle East in which a soldier could go to jail for killing a wounded enemy. Only one state with a rule of law. Only one state in which such a trial could be conducted at all. But the terrorists’ Rights Council is specifically concerned about us,” he added.

“I’ve approached senators and congressmen in the past demanding that the U.S. cut its budget to this biased and anti-Semitic organization. I'm going to contact them again, this time more forcefully. This time they have provided us with their own hands with the evidence suggesting that the only thing that guides them is abysmal hatred of Jews,” said Lapid.

Meanwhile, Israel's Ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, blasted the statement and said, "The UN Human Rights Council sits silently by as human rights are crushed in Syria and Iran and then, in the peak of hypocrisy, criticizes the only true democracy in the Middle East. This has proved once again that this body is completely divorced from reality. The credibility and integrity of the Israeli justice system is indisputable."

(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)