30 July, 2017
An Israeli military court has rejected the appeal of a soldier who was jailed for 18 months for killing a wounded Palestinian attacker.
The court rejected an appeal by IDF soldier Elor Azaria, who was sentenced to prison for killing a wounded terrorist.
Elor Azaria was found guilty in January of manslaughter over the March 2016 shooting of Abdul Fatah al-Sharif, 21, in Hebron, in the occupied West Bank.
As well as rejecting his appeal, the court decided Azaria's 18-month sentence should stand, saying that his version of events had been unreliable.
The case stirred a polarized public debate in Israel, with many political leaders - including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu - calling for an pardon for Azaria.
Azaria then shot him in the head without any apparent provocation.
"Upholding the conviction of a soldier convicted of fatally shooting a man who posed no threat sends an important message about restrictions on lethal use of force", said Sari Bashi, Israel and Palestine advocacy director for the rights group.
The shooting occurred amid a wave of attacks by Palestinians that had killed 29 Israelis over the preceding five months. His mother draped herself in the Israeli flag.
After the incident, Azaria has been under "open arrest", meaning he was confined to a military base but was allowed to move freely there.
Azaria's attorneys appealed the conviction in March, contending that key evidence was omitted from the trial; whereas the prosecution filed its own appeal, arguing that the soldier's sentence did not match the severity of his crime.
He can still appeal to the country's supreme court, though Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman called on him not to and to request a pardon from the military chief of staff.
But Rivlin and Lieberman, the defense minister, urged the Azaria family to ask Israel's top general, Gadi Eizenkot, for a pardon instead.
Netanyahu tweeted: "I will relay my recommendation for a pardon to the relevant parties when the matter comes up for meaningful discussion".