Less than eight years after he was jailed for life for shooting dead a captured Palestinian militant, a Jewish settler walked free yesterday in a case that has left Israel's judges divided and its Minister of Justice deeply discomfited.
In March 1993, Mr Yoram Skolnick, the Israeli-born son of an American immigrant couple, fired bullet after bullet into the back of Mr Moussa Abu Sabha, a Palestinian who had stabbed a settler, been disarmed, and was lying blindfolded with his hands tied behind his back. Mr Skolnick, who had heard over his walkie-talkie about the stabbing and arrived at the scene, near the West Bank settlement of Sussya, after Mr Abu Sabha had been overpowered, said in his defence that he thought the captured Palestinian had a hand-grenade.
Jailed for life, Mr Skolnick twice had his sentence reduced by Israel's former president Ezer Weizman, and was granted parole last year. But Israel's Supreme Court overruled that parole board decision. Yesterday, however, a seven-judge panel of the court decided, four to three, not to overrule a second parole board order to free him.
The judges' split decision reflected their disquiet that, as one of them wrote in a dissenting opinion, Mr Skolnick's early release implied "a contempt for human life". Israel's Attorney-General, Mr Elyakim Rubinstein, had already issued a legal opinion noting that Mr Skolnick had not grasped the severity of his crime.
The Israeli human rights group B'Tselem protested against what it called the legal authorities' "discrimination between Jewish murderers and Palestinian murderers". Mr Yossi Beilin, justice minister in the outgoing Israeli government, said that while he respected the court's decision, he was "deeply sorry that a man like this is going free".
Mr Beilin and his ministerial colleagues are only still in office because, almost two weeks after his huge election win over Prime Minister Ehud Barak, Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon is running into increasing difficulties as he tries to construct a coalition government.
Mr Sharon and Mr Barak had tentatively agreed last week that their respective Likud and Labour parties would form a "unity government" in which Mr Barak, despite an earlier pledge to quit politics, would serve as minister of defence. But senior members of Labour are pressing him to honour his promise to leave politics.
Other potential coalition partners, such as the National Religious Party, say they won't join a government in which Mr Barak serves as defence minister since they blame his security policies for the ongoing confrontation with the Palestinians.
Last night, Mr Sharon pleaded with his fellow politicians to "put the national interest" ahead of their narrower considerations. By law, he still has another month to win a parliamentary majority and take office.