Israeli soldier jailed for pointing loaded gun at Arab passerby in Jerusalem

The soldier from an ultra-Orthodox Nahal unit was off duty and not in uniform when he cocked his weapon and pointed it at the civilian in the Old City, with no threat to his life.

ed note–all can be assured that if he had murdered this innocent person, a story would have been concocted that a ‘knife attack’ was in progress and that the soldier had to do what he did in order to save his life, and, what’s worse–everyone would have believed it.

But then, what else are we to expect from a group of people whose religion instructs them to do exactly what is/has been done on a daily basis to the non-Jews living in the Holy Land, to wit–

‘When the LORD your God brings you into the land you are to possess and casts out the many peoples living there, you shall then slaughter them all and utterly destroy them…You shall save nothing alive that breathes…You shall make no agreements with them nor show them any mercy. You shall destroy their altars, break down their images, cut down their groves and burn their graven images with fire. For you are a holy people unto the LORD thy God and He has chosen you to be a special people above all others upon the face of the earth…”–Book of Deuteronomy

Haaretz

A soldier from an ultra-Orthodox Israeli army unit received a 17-day sentence on Sunday after he cocked his rifle and pointed it at an Arab civilian in Jerusalem’s Old City, while off duty and not in uniform.

The IDF spokesperson’s office said that his gun had been loaded and ready to fire he cocked it and pointed it at an Arab passerby. Israeli police officers detained the soldier, who told them he had not been threatened.

The soldier faced court martial by the commander of the Netzah Yehuda Battalion, Battalion Commander Lt. Col. Uri Levy, who punished him for an illegal use of his weapon.

“The gun was loaded and he cocked the weapon without any need for doing so and without his life being threatened,” the IDF statement said.

The incident is only the last in a series of violent incidents involving soldiers of the same Kfir Brigade, over the past two months. Two weeks ago two Kfir soldiers were court martialed for confiscating and burning a Palestinian flag. One of them, the squad commander, was relieved of his command and received a 20-day sentence. The other was grounded to base for 28 days. In early April, a platoon commander and an enlisted man from the brigade’s Netzah Yehuda Battalion were arrested in their base in the West Bank. Elor Azaria, the soldier who shot a wounded and prone Palestinian to death in Hebron, also serves in the Kfir Brigade.

In February, five Netzah Yehuda soldiers were indicted for abusing Palestinian detainees. One was demoted and jailed for nine months, and another received a seven-month sentence in a plea bargain. In one of the abuse cases, soldiers beat a Palestinian detainee in the head and gave him electric shocks with a medical instrument.