On 19 September 2026, the President of Israel, former Labour politician Isaac Hertzog, pardoned Elor Azaria, an Israeli soldier who executed a Palestinian at an army checkpoint in Hebron in March 2016. The existence of video of the incident shot by a volunteer from the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem made it impossible for the Israeli authorities to deny that an execution had taken place.
What happened was that two Palestinians, including 21-year old Abdel Fattah al-Sharif, had stabbed an IDF soldier. Other soldiers quickly opened fire, killing one attacker and seriously wounding al-Sharif. The video of the incident showed him lying incapacitated on the ground for 11 minutes, with soldiers milling around and largely ignoring his motionless body until one of the soldiers, later identified as Elor Azaria, walked over calmly and shot al-Sharif in the head.
There could hardly have been a clearer case of cold-blooded murder – and there was video evidence to prove it.
Nevertheless, Azaria wasn’t convicted of murder. In January 2017, he was convicted of manslaughter by an Israeli military court and sentenced to 18 months in prison. This was reduced to 14 months by Gadi Eisenkot, then head of the Israeli military (and maybe Israel’s next prime minister). He was eventually released after just 9 months in prison.
On the day Azaria was convicted, Prime Minister Netanyahu announced his support for a pardon. An opinion poll, published on the same day, found that 67% of Israelis supported a pardon.
Azaria never expressed any regret for his action. According to Haaretz (19 September 2026), as recently as July this year, the Israeli military opposed a request to pardon him on the grounds that he hadn’t taken responsibility for his action or expressed regret. Nevertheless, Hertzog pardoned him.
In pardoning individuals who had shot Palestinians in cold blood, he was following the footsteps of his father, Chaim Herzog, who was Israel’s sixth president. In 1986 he approved unusual pre-emptive pardons for Shin Bet agents who not only killed Palestinian bus hijackers after they were captured and bound, but also participated in a cover-up in which they framed Israeli military forces. Nevertheless, Hertzog senior gave them pre-emptive pardons, which meant that they didn’t even have to stand trial. This unusual procedure was backed by the Israeli Supreme Court.
David Morrison
30 September 2026
