When ex-Israeli Minister Feiglin Said That Just As Hitler Wanted to Expel all Jews the Zionists Want to Expel All Palestinians He Was Telling the Truth

 When Zionism During the Holocaust was Published Even Many Anti-Zionists Couldn’t Accept that Israel was a Reflection of the Nazi State - Today all that has changed

John Mearsheimer and the Nazification of Israel

In the autumn of 2022 I brought out the first book on Zionist-Nazi collaboration since Lenni Brenner 40 years ago. I wasn’t to know that a year later Israel was to embark on a genocide that bore remarkable similarity to the Nazi holocaust.

'ERASE All Palestinians' - Popular Israeli Podcasters Claim Most Share Their Genocidal Fantasy

At first people like Owen Jones recoiled against any suggestion that the Zionists had collaborated with the Nazis. In a reply to Asa Winstanley Jones wrote an article ‘No, Jews did not collaborate in their own genocide’ Jones soon found out that the comparisons between the Zionists and the Nazis were true.

The holocaust in Gaza began with the declaration of Defence Minister Yoav Gallant that the Palestinians were ‘human animals’ the very phrase that Himmler had used on 4 October 1943 at Posen about the untermenschen, the lower races.

Comparisons with the Nazi outlook and actions abounded. Prime Minister Netanyahu declared on October 28 that

You must remember what Amalek has done to you, says our Holy Bible. And we do remember.

Video. Did Israeli children really sing about annihilating everyone in Gaza?

Israel’s public broadcaster, Kan, broadcast a video of Israeli school children singing ‘The Friendship Song’ which declared that the Palestinians of Gaza should be ‘annihilated’.

Israel’s Labor Zionist President, Isaac Hertzog, stated that

The entire [Palestinian] nation out there that is responsible. It is not true this rhetoric about civilians not aware, not involved.

with the clear implication that they should be wiped out.

Genocidal statements by Government Ministers abounded. South Africa in its application to the International Court of Justice submitted a 500 page document containing multiple genocidal statements by Israeli leaders.

For example Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said that

No one in the world will allow us to starve 2 million people, even though it might be justified and moral in order to free the hostages.

In fact Israel had consistently implemented a policy of restricting food aid to the minimum and from March 2025 imposed a total blockade on food and water imports. He went on to say that “Gaza will be entirely destroyed”. 

The reality of the Gaza holocaust made Zionism During the Holocaust highly relevant. Calls for the extermination of every last single Palestinian abounded. Israel’s oldest podcast by Two Nice Jewish Boys fantasised about pressing a button and getting rid of every Palestinian in Gaza and the West Bank. Elad Barashi, a famous Israeli television producer even called for the introduction of gas chambers.

Shimon Elkabetz, the chairman of the Israel Film Council explained on Channel i24 News that "With this enemy, it's just like using a lice comb. Just kill them. Just exterminate them."   One can only assume that Elkabetz hadn’t read Hitler’s Mein Kampf where he said of German-Jewish emigrants to America that they were a 'lice-ridden migration.' [p.320, tr. Ralph Manheim]  

We have the irony of Israel on the one hand solemnly remembering the extermination of Europe’s Jews during the Holocaust. At the same time they are carrying out the extermination of the Palestinians. This isn’t simply cognitive dissonance. It is old fashioned settler colonialism with the holocaust as its protective shield. Is it any wonder that Tommy Robinson is so enamoured with Israel?

Zionism had stripped the holocaust of any contemporary or universal meaning. This only became apparent to many people after October 7 but it had always been apparent. Israel helped the Guatemalan Junta in the 1980’s to perpetrate a genocide of the Mayan Indians. Israel was the closest ally of the Apartheid state in South Africa. At the same time Israel also instituted a regime of Jewish Supremacy in Israel itself. Beginning with ethnic cleansing, as had Hitler, it ended up with genocide.

One thing that Zionism During the Holocaust had done which Brenner did not do was to focus on the ideological legitimisers of Israeli racism and ethnic cleansing, the holocaust industry.

I showed that these holocaust memorial organisations, because they had posited that the Nazi holocaust of Jews was unique, had depoliticised and ethnicised it. Never Again only meant Jews no one else.

Karen Pollock of Britain’s Holocaust Education Trust condemned the ‘shameful’ comparisons between the holocaust in Gaza and the Nazi genocide. In Pollock’s eyes, drawing universal conclusions from the holocaust was ‘shameful’.

When the Los Angeles Holocaust Museum posted a message on Instagram, the first slide of which featured a drawing of a hexagon formed by six linked arms — with the words ‘Never Again’ Can’t Only Mean Never Again For Jews.’ there was furious response from Zionists. The message was interpreted as referring to the genocide in Gaza. One commentator wrote that

This post is beyond disgraceful. Whoever created, approved, and posted this should be ashamed of themselves. Our ancestors are rolling in their graves.

Two days later, the museum deleted the post and published an apology. Unlike the first Instagram post, the museum blocked people from commenting.

The Los Angeles Holocaust Museum wasn’t alone. Every single holocaust museum and institution has refused to recognise, still less condemn, Israel’s genocide or compare what Israel was doing to the actions of the Nazis.

When 50 holocaust researchers asked Yad Vashem, Israel’s holocaust propaganda museum, to condemn the genocidal statements made by Israeli politicians, military and other public figures, its Chair Dani Dayan refused.

Instead Dayan asserted that the Israeli army was not conducting a genocide but was acting ‘within the constraints Hamas imposes on us to comply with the proper moral standards and the laws of war.’

Dayan himself was Secretary-General of the fascist anti-Arab Tehiya party, and a candidate to the Knesset on its list in the Israeli legislative elections in 1988 and 1992.

Dayan was also on the Executive of the settler Yesha Council, which is the local government for West Bank settlers. Unsurprisingly in 2015 Brazil rejected him as Israel’s nomination as its Ambassador because of his fascist credentials. Clearly Dani Dayan is well suited, from the Zionist standpoint, to run Yad Vashem!

One can only assume that support for the destruction of Gaza’s hospitals, universities and extermination of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are what passes for high moral standards at Yad Vashem.

The first edition of Zionism During the Holocaust was self published. It sold over 5,000 copies. I have now been offered and signed a contract with Verso Books to publish a second edition which will come out in 2027. It will include a new chapter on the Holocaust in Gaza. The book is likely to be very different from the first edition.

In the meantime I have terminated my contract with New Generation Publishers which means that no further copies of the book will be printed.

I have a few copies that I purchased before signing the new contract and if anyone wants to purchase a copy they should contact me at tonygreenstein104@gmail.com. The price will be £12.50 per copy for those in Britain but postage will be about £15 extra for those in Europe and £ 28 extra for those in the United States and Canada.

Tony Greenstein

An Open Letter to John McDonnell – You Need Weep No More Over ‘Anti-Semitism’

The Chutzpah of Adam Langleben & the Jewish Labour Movement

Dear John,

 According to an old Yiddish joke an example of chutzpah is when a man who, having killed his father and mother, asks the court for mercy because he is now an orphan. This perfectly describes the behaviour of former Labour Zionist Councillor Adam Langleben.

It is a chutzpah because no one did more to instil in peoples’ minds the idea that the Labour Party is riddled with antisemitism than Langleben and the Jewish Labour Movement. Langleben’s electors believed him and therefore refused to vote for him. Some would call that poetic justice.

Not only did the Israeli Labour Party leader Herzog welcome Trump's election victory but they have even adopted the same language

In the wake of his defeat Langleben did a tour of TV and radio studios seeking to blame his defeat on everyone bar himself. I am however surprised that when Langleben first started whinging about ‘alt-Left’ conspiracy sites, i.e. Canary and Skwawkbox, that you rushed to appease him.  Not once have you met with Jewish members of the Labour Party who are socialists and don’t make false allegations of anti-Semitism.

In his conspiratorial rant of a video, besides getting all his facts wrong, Langleben called for the shutting down of what he termed the ‘Alt-left’ media sites.  Perhaps he thought he was in Israel where censorship is alive and kicking.  Langleben is not the first person to use the term ‘Alt-left’. This was how Donald Trump described the anti-fascist opponents of his neo-Nazi friends at Charlottesville.

Adam Langleben's rant on the 'Alt-left' media

Langleben is a member of the JLM, which describes the Israeli Labour Party as it ‘sister’ party. The ILP is not only historically a party of ethnic cleansing but to this day it is racist to the core. If the Labour Party bore any resemblance to the racism of the ILP then there would be just cause for complaint.  As one of its leaders, David HaCohen explained:

‘‘I had to fight my friends on the issue of Jewish socialism, to defend the fact that I would not accept Arabs in my Trade Union, the Histadrut; to defend preaching to housewives that they should not buy at Arab stores; to defend the fact that we stood guard at orchards to prevent Arab workers from getting jobs there... to pour kerosene on Arab tomatoes; to attack Jewish housewives in the markets and smash Arab eggs they had bought... to buy dozens of dunums from an Arab is permitted but to sell God forbid one Jewish dunum to an Arab is prohibited; to take Rothschild the incarnation of capitalism as a socialist and to name him the ‘benefactor’ – to do all that was not easy.’ (Ha’aretz, 15.11.69.)

The ILP’s last leader Isaac Herzog declared that his nightmare was waking up to find that Israel had an Arab Prime Minister and 61 Arab Members of Israel’s Knesset. Herzog also declared that he wanted to dispel the impression that the ILP were ‘Arab Lovers.’  Imagine that someone had denied that Labour was a ‘Jew lovers party.’

Herzog’s successor Avi Gabbay is even worse.  He declared that he would not join a coalition with members of the Joint List, parties representing the Arab citizens of Israel. He raised no objections however to a coalition with the nakedly anti-Arab far-right parties Yisrael Beteinu and Habayit Hayehudi.

Gabbay followed up declaring that “the Arabs have to be afraid of us” and that Israel need never evacuate any of its settlements built on occupied Palestinian land.  According to Gabbay ‘Settlements represent the ‘beautiful face of Zionism’.

In May 2012, Herzog wrote challenging arguments by human rights groups that Eritreans in Israel deserved protection as refugees. Today the ILP under Gabbay supports Netanyahu’s attempt to deport 40,000 Black African refugees.  Yet despite this Gabbay recently wrote to Jeremy Corbyn cutting his links with him on the spurious grounds of ‘anti-Semitism’.

The more McDonnell buys into the narrative of Labour 'antisemitism' the more he undermines Corbyn's leadership

As someone with a background of support for the Irish Republican movement you cannot be unaware of the fact that Protestant Supremacists in Northern Ireland identify with Zionism just as Republicans support the Palestinian struggle.  The recent ‘anti-racist’ Zionist demonstration outside Parliament included members of the DUP (& Norman Tebbit)!

In the words of Sir Ronald Storres, the British Military Governor of Jerusalem (1920-25) the Zionist project would be ‘one that blessed him that gave as well as him that took by forming for England “a little loyal Jewish Ulster in a sea of hostile Arabism.’ [Orientations, Nicholson & Watson, London 1943, p.345] 

Report by Daily Mail journalist Dan Hodges to divert attention from an award winning documentary

You declared last year that you could ‘weep' over Labour anti-Semitism row.  I can only suggest that you save your tears John.  If ‘anti-Semitism’ were really a problem in the Labour Party do you really think that Marc Wadsworth and myself would have been expelled?  That Jackie Walker and Ken Livingstone would be facing expulsion? Why do you think Black and Jewish anti-racists are the ones being disciplined?

The JLM protest of course that the ‘anti-Semitism’ smears have nothing to do with Israel but if that is so why do they push the 450 word IHRA definition of ‘anti-Semitism when anti-Semitism can be summed up in a few words i.e. ‘hatred of Jews as Jews’?  If Labour was indeed consumed with anti-Semitism do you really think that the Sun, Mail and Express press would be so concerned?

Rushing to appease Labour's Zionists is like digging your own grave

As long as you and Jeremy try to appease those who accuse the Labour Party of anti-Semitism, the more you will endanger your own position.  This fake campaign has but one target.  It is not to rid Labour of ‘anti-Semitism’ but to remove you and Jeremy from the leadership.  Marc, Jackie, Ken and myself are the collateral damage.

Adam Langleben’s JLM voted by 92% to 4% to support Owen Smith in the leadership election.  They are on Labour’s far-Right.  What you and Jeremy should be asking is why do we allow to operate, inside the Labour Party, the Labour Friends of Israeli Apartheid?

Langleben secretly videod Jackie Walker at a JLM 'training event' - she was suspended shortly after

The JLM does not represent all or even most Jews in the Labour Party.  Jews opposed to Zionism and the Israeli state are no different from Whites in South Africa who opposed Apartheid.  Would Labour then have identified with the Nationalists?

When Jonathan Arkush of the Board of Deputies attacked Jewdas, the Jewish group that Jeremy spent seder night with, he accused them of being ‘a source of virulent anti-Semitism.’  When Zionists talk of ‘anti-Semitism’ what they normally mean is anti-Zionism.  If you really want to be the first left-wing Chancellor of the Exchequer since Sir Stafford Cripps, you have to stand up to these racists not sing from the same song sheet.

In solidarity,

Tony Greenstein

Adam Langleben - Say Sorry

Langleben thinks that everyone but him is responsible for him losing his seat - when he was the author of his own misfortune

Some serving councillors lost their seats in last Thursday’s local elections. Many of those losing were from UKIP, and some were Tories. But although Labour gained ground, some of their councillors were among those losing. One of those was Adam Langleben, who had served on the council in the London Borough of Barnet.

The problem for Langleben is that he has been unable to accept defeat without blaming others, to the extent of making allegations which he will have significant trouble standing up. These have been made in a video he has posted. Here are some of the claims.

After saying “we just lost Barnet”, when Labour didn’t hold the council in the first place, he continues “we have conspiratorial anti-Semitism”, and then asserts “Right now, as I’m filming this, an alternative left-wing news website called Skwawkbox is going through all of the Tweets attacking me, as a Jewish Labour Party member … that accuses me of being a Mossad agent, that accuses me of trying to undermine the leadership”.

There was more. A lot more. “Accuses me of all sorts of things, and it is … propagating Labour anti-Semitism. Now, the Labour leadership can do something very simple and easy. It should say that these alternative fake news websites do not speak for them. Skwawkbox, The Canary … they are propagating conspiracy theory in the Labour Party. They allow it to fester. They spread the message”. And he wasn’t done yet.

 “Jeremy Corbyn, John McDonnell, both have close links to these groups, to people who run these websites. They should say loudly and clearly that any conspiracy theory that these websites spread are false. They should be shut down. They do not have the support of the Labour leadership. And it’s a very very simple thing to do. John McDonnell, Jeremy Corbyn, come and speak out about these fake news websites”.

While it is entirely understandable that Langleben is unhappy about losing his seat, he has a problem here: much of what he claims is not merely untrue, but actionably so.

Consider the two New Left Media outlets he has accused.

The Canary has never mentioned Adam Langleben.

Skwawkbox has never mentioned Adam Langleben.

Neither Skwawkbox, nor The Canary, has linked Langleben to the Mossad, or of undermining the Labour leadership (as they haven’t mentioned him at all).

The only Twitter interaction between Skwawkbox and Adam Langleben is one reply from the former to the latter, inviting him to DM them.

There is no evidence whatever to support the claim that Skwawkbox is “going through all of the Tweets attacking me”. Indeed, that is itself a conspiracy theory.

As to the “close links” that Jezza and McDonnell are alleged to have to those sites, let me restate what Zelo Street had to say to the perpetually thirsty Paul Staines and his rabble at the Guido Fawkes blog when they tried to make that accusation last year.

 “Skwawkbox has NEVER had any contact with Jeremy Corbyn’s office. There is NO contact between Evolve Politics and Corbyn’s office … The Canary has NO contact with Corbyn’s office.” Got that? No contact. At all.

And as to the idea that sites which displease Adam Langleben, or indeed anyone else, “should be shut down”, the sinister overtones are simply breathtaking. That’s the kind of behaviour that gives totalitarian dictatorships a bad name.

Not surprisingly, Skwawkbox has already registered its displeasure at Langleben’s totally untrue claims. The Canary may be following along shortly. There has been talk of legal action, and understandably so. But there is a straightforward solution here.

And that is for Adam Langleben to stop, think, realise he is wrong, and say sorry. Skwawkbox did not lose him his council seat. Nor did The Canary. Nor did any other New Left Media site. The only person who lost that seat is Adam Langleben. That is all.

Only in Israel’s ‘democracy’ could the Prime Minister urge a pardon for a cold-blooded racist murderer

Elor Azaria, Israel’s killer hero is unlikely to do any gaol time

Imagine, if you will, a Palestinian who had shot in the head, cold bloodedly, a severely wounded Israeli lying prostrate on the ground.  Imagine Benjamin Netanyahu urging clemency.  This is a fantasy scenario.  Palestinians guilty of resistance, who kill Israeli combat soldiers, which they are entitled to do under international law, because a people living under occupation is entitled to resist the occupiers, would receive life sentences of 30 years and more. 

Only in the past month Balad member of the Knesset Basel Ghattas of Balad was arrested on suspicion of passing phones and intelligence information to Walid Daka, one of two prisoners whom Ghattas allegedly met with during a visit to Ketziot prison.  In most civilised countries, prisoners have access to mobile phones.  As to 'intelligence information' the mind boggles.

Walid Daka has not been the recipient of a pardon.  On the contrary he is serving a 37-year sentence for the 1984 abduction and murder of 19-year-old soldier Moshe Tamam.  Daka is not a hero in Israel because, of course, he is not Jewish.  On the contrary he was guilty of killing a soldier in the Jewish state’s army.  He should count himself lucky to be alive. 

Opposition leader Isaac Herzog said in a statement that the verdict must be respected. He added, however, that “it cannot be ignored that Azaria was, to some degree, a victim of the situation, but the ruling strengthens the IDF, since you cannot ignore the circumstances of the incident, which reflect an impossible reality in a field that is complicated, which IDF soldiers deal with daily, hourly.”

Quite how a cold-blooded killer is 'a victim of the situation' defies explanation.  Perhaps the Yorkshire Ripper was also a 'victim of the situation'.  Totally absurd legitimation of Azaria.

Israeli Labour's former leader calls for a pardon for Elor Azaria

However The Times of Israel reported that, 

‘In a surprise development, coalition ministers were joined in their call for a pardon by Zionist Union’s Shelly Yachimovich, former head of the Labour Party.

Yachimovich praised the court for burnishing the ethical standard expected of IDF soldiers, but said the entire trial was a symptom of the deep division within Israeli society, “and Azaria’s shoulders are not broad enough to bear the weight of that rift. Therefore,” she tweeted, “at the conclusion of the trial and after the sentencing, we must carefully consider the possibility of pardoning him.”

Another demonstration of how the Israeli Labour Party is not an opposition but a partner in the crimes committed against the Palestinians.

Can you imagine Herzog or Netanyahu pointing out the circumstances that led a Palestinian to shoot dead an IDF soldier who was harassing his family or raiding a house?  Unimaginable.  Palestinians in such a situation have their ‘blood on their hands’.  The only debate in Israel is whether to execute Palestinians who kill soldiers after a trial or whether to simply dispense with a trial, as Elor Azaria did.  That is why Azaria is a hero.  What he did was nothing exceptional.

It should be pointed out that Azaria is a supporter of the late Jewish Nazi politician and ex-Knesset member Rabbi Meir Kahane.  He is a thorough going racist.

Joint (Arab) List chair MK Ayman Odeh charged that 

“Netanyahu chose to stand together with the supporters of the soldier and their joyous calls of death to the Arabs, and so made it clear the he is responsible for the moral decline that these groups are leading in Israeli society,”  “Azaria is guilty,” he added, “but it is the government that is responsible, which for 50 years has been sending young men and women to become thugs whose task is to uphold military rule over a population deprived of rights.”

Joint (Arab) List chairman Ayman Odeh addresses a question to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the assembly hall of the parliament, July 18, 2016. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

In a statement, Odeh implied that hundreds of extrajudicial killings were being carried out by the IDF in the West Bank.

“The difference between this incident and hundreds of others is the presence of the B’Tselem camera that recorded the cruel reality of the occupation and revealed the inflammatory pus that the occupation creates in the heart of Israeli society,” he said.

The banner that sums up the campaign to pardon Elor Azaria

Two weeks ago I criticised an article by Yakov Hirsch Azaria’s conviction will end a totalitarian ideology for wishful thinking and back in April in THIS IS Israel – Call to Kill All Arabs at Tel Aviv Rally in Support for Killer Soldier I described a demonstration called in support of Azaria in Tel Aviv where a banner ‘Kill them all’ (i.e. kill all Arabs) was displayed at a demonstration  called in solidarity with Azaria.

But above all else, what this case shows above anything else is the moral and political degeneration of the Israeli settler state.  Is there another country on this planet where a cold-blooded racist killer could be named man of the year by the main TV Channel 10 and by Makor Rishon, a publication owned by US billionaire Sheldon Adelson?

Tony Greenstein

Israeli soldier convicted for revenge killing

Charlotte Silver Rights and Accountability 4 January 2017

Palestinians hold posters showing Israeli army medic Elor Azarya, at a protest in Hebron on 4 January, the day Azarya was convicted of manslaughter for killing injured Palestinian Abdul Fattah al-Sharif in March 2016. Wisam Hashlamoun APA images

An Israeli military court has convicted Elor Azarya, the 20-year-old army medic who was caught on video executing an injured Palestinian man lying in the street last year, for manslaughter.

During the trial, Azarya’s lawyers argued that the soldier had fired at Abd al-Fattah Yusri al-Sharif in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron because he felt he was in danger.

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But in their ruling on Wednesday, the judges found “beyond all reasonable doubt” that Azarya had acted in revenge.

Within hours, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for Azarya, who is seen as a national hero by many in Israel, to be pardoned.

Al-Sharif was shot dead along with Ramzi Aziz al-Qasrawi, both 21 years old, on 24 March last year. Israel alleges that they stabbed a soldier near the Tel Rumeida settlement in Hebron.

The killing of al-Qasrawi was not caught on video.

The verdict came shortly after Human Rights Watch said that senior Israeli officials have been 

“encouraging Israeli soldiers and police to kill Palestinians they suspect of attacking Israelis even when they are no longer a threat.”

“Perversion of justice”

Following the verdict, Azarya’s supporters staged protests, blocking traffic, clashing with police and shouting racist abuse at Palestinian workers.

Some of the protesters carried banners in support of US President-elect Donald Trump:

Lawmakers from Israel’s far-right and centrist political parties are calling for Azarya to be pardoned, a power that lies with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin.

Backing the calls, Netanyahu said, “This is a difficult and painful day for all of us – and first and foremost for Elor and his family, for [Israeli army] soldiers, for many soldiers and for the parents of our soldiers, and me among them.”

In Hebron, the family of al-Sharif expressed dissatisfaction that Azarya was only charged with manslaughter.

Relatives told Palestinians gathered at a vigil in Hebron on Wednesday that they would bring Israel to the International Criminal Court for what they see as cold-blooded murder.

“The fact that the soldier is convicted of manslaughter isn’t such an important development from our standpoint,” Fathi al-Sharif, an uncle of the slain man, told the Tel Aviv newspaper Haaretz. “From the beginning, we stated that he had committed murder and needed to be convicted of murder. The fact that they changed the count of the indictment to manslaughter from our standpoint is a perversion of justice.”

Videotaped killing

Emad Abu Shamsiyya, the Palestinian field researcher with the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem who filmed the killing, has received hundreds of death threats.

He said members of Azarya’s family broke into his home and asked him to change his testimony to the court.

On the day of the shooting, Azarya was called onto the scene after al-Sharif and al-Qasrawi were shot and incapacitated, to give the moderately injured soldier medical assistance.

Video footage released by B’Tselem shows al-Sharif lying on the ground, slightly moving his head, while Israeli soldiers and medics work around him and load the injured soldier onto an ambulance.

The video shows no attempt to provide medical treatment to al-Sharif.

Settlers on the scene are heard shouting, “the terrorist is still alive,” and the “the dog is still alive.”

Azarya then aims his weapon, takes a few steps towards al-Sharif, and shoots him in the head. A stream of blood pours from the man’s head.

After the video was released, some Israeli politicians and military leaders condemned the shooting and the military announced it would charge the shooter with murder. But almost immediately Israeli leaders began to backtrack as they saw the swelling of popular support for Azarya.

Azarya was eventually indicted on the lesser manslaughter charge.

At the trial, Azarya claimed he had shot the incapacitated al-Sharif out of fear for his safety.

But Azarya’s company commander testified that al-Sharif posed no danger.

The judges’ verdict states that the reason Azarya shot al-Sharif “was not rooted in a sense of danger, but rather in the explanation he provided immediately upon completion of the shooting to the effect that ‘the terrorist deserved to die’ because he had stabbed a friend of his prior to that.”

Two months after the shooting, more video emerged suggesting the army tampered with evidence. The footage shows a person kicking a knife closer to the body of the slain man.

Shoot to kill policy

Azarya’s indictment is exceptional: scores of Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces over the last year, many in apparent extrajudicial executions, with impunity for their killers.

Last September, Amnesty International detailed 20 cases of killings of Palestinians by Israeli forces. In 15 of those cases, Amnesty said, “Palestinians were deliberately shot dead, despite posing no imminent threat to life, in what appear to be extrajudicial executions.”

Also in September, Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq found that “Since 1987, no Israeli soldier or commander has been convicted of willfully causing the death of a Palestinian in the [occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip].”

According to Haaretz, since 2000, in only a handful of cases were soldiers prosecuted for manslaughter for the killing of Palestinians. Of those, only one soldier was convicted. He received an eight-year sentence, though this was later reduced.

Human rights defenders are stressing that the killing of al-Sharif highlights a much broader problem.

“It’s not just about potentially rogue soldiers, but also about senior Israeli officials who publicly tell security forces to unlawfully shoot to kill,” Sari Bashi, Israel advocacy director at Human Rights Watch, said.

Human Rights Watch says that since October 2015, when an escalation in confrontations between Palestinians and Israeli occupation forces began, it has documented numerous statements “by senior Israeli politicians, including the police minister and defense minister, calling on police and soldiers to shoot to kill suspected attackers, irrespective of whether lethal force is actually strictly necessary to protect life.”

Indeed, one witness called by Azarya’s defense, a settler security chief, told the court that shooting at the heads of incapacitated alleged Palestinian attackers is a common practice by Israeli occupation forces.

In October, Azarya was named man of the year by Israel’s Channel 10 and by Makor Rishon, a publication owned by US billionaire Sheldon Adelson.

He is expected to be sentenced in coming weeks.

See also Jonathan Cook's Elor Azaria case: ‘No hope of equality before the law’