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Originally Posted by y.winter
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"Israel's political leadership has also swayed with the majority," Al Jazeera's Andrew Simmons, reporting from Tel Aviv, said.
"Avigdor Lieberman actively campaigned in support of Azaria and he has since been appointed defence minister by Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister."
Naftali Bennett, the education minister and a member of Israel's far-right Jewish Home party, said before the verdict that the soldier should be pardoned if found guilty.
"That is whipping up a lot of reactions," Simmons said. "There is a split in the Israeli public opinion on how army should act in [attack] situations. In the majority are those who feel that
'terrorists' who attack Israeli soldiers are fair targets."
In a memorandum sent to the Israeli authorities in September 2016, human rights group Amnesty International highlighted at least 20 cases of apparently unlawful killings of Palestinians by Israeli forces. In at least 15 of these cases those killed were deliberately shot dead, despite posing no imminent threat to life.
Since October 2015, Israeli soldiers and settlers have been responsible for the killing of at least 244 Palestinians, including unarmed demonstrators, bystanders and alleged attackers in an upsurge in violence.
'Terrorists' are people who don't belong to a terrorist organisation terrorists? If they are by the same token should the guy who attacked Jo Cox not be called terrorist, if it's for a political cause against establishment figures?