Ya'alon's role in killing of PLO terrorist cited in IDF soldier's defense

In the letter, the mother accuses Ya’alon and the entire defense establishment of "abandoning" the "soldier who you sent to protect the citizens of the state."

By NOAM AMIR/MAARIV HASHAVUA
Updated: MARCH 28, 2016 04:37
Abu Jihad Israel Ya'alon
The Israeli defense minister’s role in the assassination of a top Palestine Liberation Organization terrorist in the 1980s is being invoked to justify the shooting of a subdued Palestinian terrorist in Hebron last week.
The mother of the Israeli soldier who faces a court martial for possible murder charges after shooting a defenseless Palestinian who had just stabbed a comrade in Hebron last week wrote an impassioned letter to Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon on Sunday.
In the letter, the mother accuses Ya’alon and the entire defense establishment of “abandoning” the “soldier who you sent to protect the citizens of the state.”
“I am the mother who gave her son away and the system used him, repudiated him, and tore him to shreds though its spokespeople,” she wrote. “Give us back our boy, give us back our lives.”
IDF soldier shoots dead subdued Palestinian terrorist in Hebron, part of Elor Azaria case
The infantryman from the Kfir Brigade was arrested by military police after he was filmed on Thursday killing an apparently incapacitated terrorist in Hebron.
The soldier’s attorney claims that the shooting was motivated by fear that the terrorist was armed with an explosive device and that his actions were aimed at preempting any additional harm that might come to the troops on the scene.
In the letter, the soldier’s mother draws a parallel between her son’s actions and those of Ya’alon during his days as a commander of the elite crack reconnaissance unit Sayeret Matkal. It was Sayeret Matkal that took part in the killing of Khalil al-Wazir, Yasser Arafat’s No. 2 in the PLO who was known by his nom de guerre, Abu Jihad, in his home in Tunis in 1988.
Israel, which only recently acknowledged that it carried out the assassination, said that Abu Jihad masterminded deadly terrorist attacks against Israelis.
“Remember, and don’t forget, that you stood in my son’s shoes when you were in the bedroom of Abu Jihad and you confirmed the death of the despicable, murderous terrorist,” the soldier’s mother wrote to Ya’alon.
“On Thursday, my son also stood before a murderer terrorist, but the roles have been reversed and the terrorist who came to commit murder has been turned into a righteous gentile while my son is a killer,” she writes.


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