Jerusalem, October 26: A military court on Sunday sentenced two Israeli conscripts who took part in a pro-settler demonstration during a swearing-in ceremony to 20 days behind bars, an army spokeswoman said.
“Two young soldiers who waved a banner with a political message during a swearing-in ceremony at the Western (Wailing) Wall (in Jerusalem) were sentenced to 20 days in prison,” she told AFP.
She said they have also been transferred to a non-combat unit for the duration of their three-year military service.
Local media reported that the young soldiers from the Kfir Brigade had held up banners expressing solidarity with Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank during Thursday’s ceremony.
One of the banners read: “We will not evacuate Homesh.”
That was a reference to one of about 100 wildcat settlements built without authorisation from the Israeli government, which has pledged to raze down such outposts on Palestinian land.
“We wanted to show that our role is to protect Israeli citizens and not to evacuate them from their homes in their ancestral lands,” one of the young soldiers told public radio.
–Agencies