Theater of the absurd? Azariya case fallout? A lone soldier who reported to police about Molotov cocktails which had been thrown at him in the Abu Tor neighborhood in Jerusalem will be charged for issuing threats, according to a Channel 10 report.
According to the report the soldier called a police hotline and said: "I saw a group of five masked men with a Molotov cocktail in their hands. If I had my gun here I would have shot at them without hesitation."
During the conversation with the receptionist which lasted a number of minutes, the soldier said a number of times that he would have fired at the terrorists if he could. For this reason the police recommended pressing charges against him for threatening Arab residents of the neighborhood.
"I feel that they did me an injustice. I said all sorts of rubbish because of the tension I felt. I explained to the policeman who arrived here what happened. I told him that if I said something wrong I regret it."
The soldier's attorney, Sagi Greenfeld, said that "the situation was one of immediate danger to life. Terrorists were about to throw a Molotov cocktail at the soldier. The fact that the terrorists were not caught and the soldier is now being indicted for threats he made at a time of emotional stress, is nothing short of ridiculous."
The police responded that "the soldier's words at the time of the incident were unambiguous, both in the nature of the threat and in the ability to implement it, due to his proximity to a weapon. The rest of the circumstances will be taken into account during the legal procedure."