A Jerusalem court convicted a 14-year-old Palestinian on Tuesday of the attempted murder of two Israelis in a knife attack last October that was one of the most high-profile of a recent wave of violence.
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A majority of Israelis do not want a court-martial to take place, according to an opinion poll taken shortly after Sergeant Elor Azaria was arrested in March. Palestinian leaders will also not be left alone by the USA and its Middle East mediators for not being able to stop anti-Israel attacks.
In a video that was widely circulated following the incident, the Palestinian Abdul Fatah al-Sharif is shown lying on the ground along with another man after being shot and wounded.
Azaria, who is being detained in a military base during legal procedures, had been granted a weekend last month to celebrate Passover with his family.
A wave of violence since October past year has killed 204 Palestinians and 28 Israelis, according to an AFP count.
Azaria is being held in open detention until the end of the case.
This decision comes for direct violation of the Palestinian human rights by Israel, according to the Student Association in Chile.
In its indictment, the military prosecution said Azaria “acted in contrast to the rules of opening fire and without any operational justification”.
The two stabbed and seriously wounded a 20-year-old and a 12-year-old boy in the Jewish neighborhood of Pisgat Ze’ev in Jerusalem.
Azaria’s defence team, who say he thought the Palestinian was wearing explosives, said on Monday the trial was tainted by a politicised attempt to produce a conviction.
The assailants who have been killed have either been shot dead by their victims or security forces as they carried out attacks. Barghouti, a Qatari-born Palestinian who is married to an Israeli woman and leader of the global boycott movement against Israel, on Tuesday accused Israeli authorities of imposing a travel ban on him as retribution for his political activities.
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Lavie urged the government to do more to “halt” the growing global BDS campaign, saying: “The full mobilization on the part of the state is required, so that together we can provide a real counterweight against BDS and the other active organizations”.
