Israel's Very Own Ferguson Debate

In Hebron, and elsewhere, some young Palestinian men have indulged their anger in recent months by stabbing Israelis more or less at random, wounding or killing a number of innocent civilians and bringing terror to much of Israel. Last Thursday, two of those young men reportedly stormed a Hebron checkpoint, stabbing an Israeli soldier in the arm. Other soldiers fired at the Palestinians, killing one and wounding the other, 21-year-old Abed al-Fatah al-Sharif. A few minutes later, activists from the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem arrived and began filming, as they often do in Hebron. By then, the scene had calmed. B'Tselem's video shows that a dozen or so Israeli soldiers and settlers milled around as an ambulance arrived to pick up the wounded soldier — but not al-Sharif, who lay on the ground, bleeding badly but still alive. One of the settlers walked up to al-Sharif to take a video on his cellphone.