Court Overturns Conviction on Soldier’s Use of Firearms

The High Court of Justice has reversed the conviction of an Israeli soldier whom two military courts found guilty of wrongfully using firearms against a Palestinian in the Gaza Strip.

Justice Meir Shamgar, president of the court, acquitted Sgt. Maj. David Ankonina.

The soldier was in charge of a roadblock conducting routine checks of Arab drivers when some approaching drivers suddenly turned away. After ordering them to stop, Ankonina fired his weapon, first into the air and then at the wheels. One driver was fatally shot.

A military court of the Southern Command found that he “lost his cool” and acted out of rage “to teach the driver a lesson.”

A military appeals court upheld that verdict. But Judge Shamgar ruled that the soldier bore no criminal responsibility for firing his weapon in obedience to a legal command.

In another case, the Israel Defense Force judge advocate general, Brig. Amnon Strashnov, dropped charges against two officers accused of firing rubber bullets at a Jenin resident from a closer range than allowed by regulations.

They allegedly fired from a distance of 23 feet, whereas the minimum allowed is 50 feet. But Strashnov decided after rechecking the facts not to pursue the case.

Meanwhile, Brig. Gen. Ya’acov Or, former IDF commander in the Gaza Strip, testified at the trial of four soldiers of the Givati Brigade accused of fatally beating a Gaza resident.

Or said he did not permit beating civilians for punitive reasons, but “others may have given orders which were improperly understood.”

Defense counsel Moshe Yisrael submitted the minutes of a meeting of senior officers in the Gaza Strip which showed that soldiers were authorized to beat up Arab civilians for refusing to remove roadblocks set up by intifada activists.