The author of the IDF Ethics Code slammed celebrations over the release of soldier Elor Azariya from military prison.
A festive reception was held for Azariya this morning, Tuesday, in front of his family’s home in Ramle, following his release from a nine-month prison sentence over a manslaughter conviction connected to his March 2016 shooting of a wounded terrorist in Hevron.
Israel Prize Laureate and Philosophy Professor Asa Kasher, who authored the IDF’s Code of Ethics, blasted the celebrations, calling them a “disgrace.”
“This is someone who knowingly killed and did not even express one word of remorse, and did not show, even a bit, allegiance to the values of the IDF,” Kasher told Army Radio.
In an opinion piece in the Forward published in April 2016, the month following the Hevron incident, Kasher had condemned Azariya’s conduct, claiming that “what he did was not a necessary step of self-defense. It was not a step of self-defense at all.”
“Yes, the terrorist was an enemy, but soldiers are required to treat a terrorist wielding a knife as a criminal, not as an enemy in a battlefield. The terrorist’s attempt to kill or injure ought to be foiled, but killing him is sanctioned only if there is no effective alternative — only if it’s a last resort,” he wrote.