JERUSALEM — The Israeli military announced on Wednesday that a senior officer caught on videotape striking a Danish pro-Palestinian activist in the face with an M-16 rifle during a standoff in the West Bank was to be dismissed from his post “on moral grounds.”
In addition, the officer, Lt. Col. Shalom Eisner, will not receive a planned promotion to serve as the deputy commander of the military’s prestigious officer school, and will not be eligible to serve in a commanding position for the next two years, the military said in a statement.
The military had moved quickly to suspend Colonel Eisner from his post as deputy commander of the Jordan Valley Brigade hours after the video was broadcast on a popular Israeli television news program on Sunday night. Israeli leaders issued swift condemnations.
The episode took place on Saturday when Israeli soldiers blocked the path of 200 Palestinians and their foreign supporters who were participating in a bicycle tour of the Israeli-occupied Jordan Valley area of the West Bank. The foreign activists said they had wanted to draw attention to the restrictions placed on Palestinians living in the area.
The altercation occurred when the cyclists tried to leave the Palestinian village of Ouja and join Route 90, a major north-south artery. Access to the road was blocked by a line of 10 to 20 soldiers. The activists said that after waiting for half an hour, singing and chanting, they then decided to walk peacefully toward the soldiers in an effort to reach Route 90. That, they said, is when Colonel Eisner became violent.
The Dane, Andreas Ias, 20, had his lips sutured after he was struck. A Dutch volunteer said that Colonel Eisner had also hit her and a Palestinian woman in the face, and a Palestinian man in the back, with his rifle.
Colonel Eisner is not allowed to give interviews to the news media under army regulations. But he has defended his actions through associates, arguing that the activists acted violently and broke his hand in scenes that were not shown in the video. Colonel Eisner has said that he used the rifle as a club and did not kill anyone, and that he was acting in order to carry out his mission and prevent harm to his soldiers.
In interviews, Mr. Ias has vehemently denied accusations that the activists used violence.
The military said on Wednesday that the chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, had concluded from the army’s investigation that there were also professional and command failures during the episode.
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