RAMALLAH, February 21, 2017 (WAFA) – Hanan Ashrawi, member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Tuesday described the 18 months jail sentence a court had earlier issued against an Israeli soldier who shot and killed a wounded and incapacitated Palestinian as a travesty.

In late March 2016, Abdul Fattah al-Sharif allegedly took part in a knife attack along with Ramzi Aziz Qasrawi, 21. They were gunned down leading to Qasrawi’s death. Al-Sharif sustained injuries and was lying incapacitated on the ground when the Israeli soldier, Elor Azaria, shot him in the head and killed him.

A video footage of the incident released by B‘Tselem, an Israeli rights group, showed Azaria shooting al-Sharif in the head after he had already been injured and was motionless on the ground.

“This is a travesty of justice,” said Ashrawi in a press release. “It is apparent that the Israeli judicial system has become compromised with the systemic racism, injustice and the culture of hate that is plaguing the Israeli occupation.”

The PLO official said the impunity of Israeli behavior as a state is now extending to the actions of its soldiers and citizens.

“This sentencing demonstrates the active devaluation of human life, especially the lives of Palestinians that have been oppressed and held captive by an Israeli occupation for far too long,” said Ashrawi.

“Calls for pardon by right-wing Israeli ministers for the crime of ‘manslaughter’ reflect the true nature of this government that acts outside the most basic norms of justice, morality and judicial integrity,” she concluded.

T.R./M.K.