Angry Israelis Demonstrate Outside Prison Where IDF Soldier Jailed for Killing Terrorist

By Hana Levi Julian, JEWISH PRESS

Angry IDF veterans and other Israelis protest jailing of soldier who shot and killed terrorist to ensure he was neutralized in Hebron.

Demonstrators waving posters, honking horns and yelling slogans gathered in Be’er Sheva Saturday night to protest against the arrest and jailing of an IDF soldier who shot and killed a terrorist who was apparently “neutralized” in Hebron last week.

The protesters stood across from Prison No. 4 on Saturday night, where the soldier is incarcerated, according to Israeli radio.

One of the protesters spoke with Channel 1 as other bystanders shot video with their cellphones, saying that he had served as a member of the Border Guard Police, and as a father of two combat soldiers, understood the necessity for army discipline.

“But the army knows how to deal with this, and this should have been left to the army to deal with, and it wasn’t. This soldier was arrested because things were being dealt with in the light of the cameras, rather than in the military court, where it belongs.

”Moreover, we are at war. We need to deal with the situation on the ground, and we’re not doing that…. I have served in Judea, Samaria, Gaza, everywhere, and I have lost friends in all those places. I know what war is. This is war.”

Another protester, also an IDF veteran said, “The government keeps talking about a wave of terror, a terror wave. This is not a terror wave, this is a war. It’s a war.

“How do you know when a terrorist is neutralized? If his hands are cuffed, fine. If he takes a bullet to the head, then yes, you know. But if he has taken a bullet to a leg, he can still move. If he has taken a bullet to an arm or elsewhere, he can still move — and they do. We have seen it, and we have seen soldiers die because of it. So that is not neutralized. Neutralized is when you know he cannot move.”

About the Author: Hana Levi Julian is a Middle East news analyst with a degree in Mass Communication and Journalism from Southern Connecticut State University. A past columnist with The Jewish Press and senior editor at Arutz 7, Ms. Julian has written for Babble.com, Chabad.org and other media outlets, in addition to her years working in broadcast journalism.