RAMALLAH, February 22, 2017 (WAFA) – The 18-month sentence a Tel Aviv military court issued against the Israeli soldier who shot and killed an incapacitated Palestinian in Hebron in April of last year was the focus of the front page headlines in the three Palestinian dailies on Wednesday.
Palestinians said the soldier, Elor Azaria, received a light sentence for the execution-style killing of 21-year-old Abdul Fattah al-Sharif.
Al-Quds said Palestinians reacted angrily to the lenient sentence, while al-Ayyam said the cabinet slammed the sentence as a “green light” for cold-blood Israeli killing of Palestinians.
Members of the al-Sharif family were reported in al-Ayyam and al-Hayat al-Jadida as describing the entire court case as a “show trial” and vowing to take the case to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Al-Hayat al-Jadida also slammed the Israeli court’s sentence as signaling “racism” and “incitement to murder” Palestinians.
Al-Quds and al-Ayyam reported in their main front page story that the Israeli occupation authorities have decided to annex 250 dunums of land from the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sur Baher in order to build a Jewish settlement.
Al-Quds added Israeli forces prevented Palestinians from reclaiming their farmlands in Shufa town, southeast of Tulkarem, and delivered eviction notices to three Palestinian families in Aqraba village, south of Nablus.
Al-Quds and al-Ayyam said the Israeli District Court in Jerusalem cancelled orders to expropriate 1,300 dunums of Palestinian land in the East Jerusalem neighborhoods of Issawiya and al-Tur.
Al-Ayyam said Israeli bulldozers leveled Palestinian farmland in Deir Istiya, southwest of Nablus. It added Israeli forces detained 24 Palestinians in predawn raids across the West Bank.
It also reported fundamentalist Jewish settlers attacked Palestinians several hours after they set up a settlement outpost in Khallet Hamad locality in the northern Jordan Valley.
Highlighting local municipal elections, al-Ayyam reported the Central Elections Commission (CEC) officially informed the government that it would be impossible to hold elections in the Gaza Strip.
Al-Quds and al-Hayat al-Jadida reported the cabinet called on the Hamas movement to reconsider its position on local elections.
The three dailies reported Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Jordan’s King Abdullah II as reaffirming their continued support for the two-state solution.
Highlighting the 6th International Conference in Support of the Palestinian Intifada in Tehran, al-Quds reported Chairman of the Palestinian National Council (PNC) Salim Zanoun as urging attendees to put pressure on all to protect Jerusalem.
Al-Quds and al-Ayyam reported demolitions of Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem have “dramatically increased” since US President Donald Trump took office on January 20.
Al-Hayat al-Jadida spotlighted a report by the Amman-based Group for the Protection of Nature (APN) and the PAN Asia Pacific (PANAP) revealing that Israel “knowingly facilitated” the illegal manufacture, trade and use of hazardous pesticides inside occupied Palestinian territories.
K.F./M.K.
