Confirming The Kill Is Moral
Confirming kill immoralOnce neutralized, terrorists should not be shot by police to confirm kill
Mickey LevyAll of us were educated in the Israel Defense Forces to adhere to the code of the purity of arms, part of which means using our weapons in a moral way. The moment a decision is taken and a bullet is shot, the goal is to hit and neutralize enemy actions. The moment we fired, and the enemy or terrorist was hit, and we are under the impression that he was neutralized, there is no room to shoot again – even if this is the most terrible and despicable terrorist. We shall never shoot him in cold blood. Only if the danger has not been lifted, neutralization means confirming the kill.
The situation where a terrorist driving a bulldozer went on a rampage through one of Jerusalem’s streets was faced by a police officer, a 22-year-old woman, who immediately realized this was a terror act. She then decided to shoot the rampaging bulldozer driver while he was speeding.
With all due respect to the brave soldier who showed great courage at the end of the incident, and I certainly take my hat off to him, his act was the easy part of the incident. The difficult part was performed by police office Revital Nahum, who took the difficult decision to shoot the driver.
We are a moral peopleIn my view, Nahum is the true hero; she faced the most difficult situation when she fired two bullets, hit the terrorist, and in fact stopped the incident. The police officer’s partner who hopped into the driver’s seat saw that the driver was unconscious and therefore put down his gun and didn’t shoot him. This is precisely the stage where a police officer should not be firing in cold blood, even if we are dealing with a despicable terrorist.
Regrettably, a civilian who hurled a stone at the terrorist aroused him. At that point, the terrorist started struggling with the police officer, and to my regret was able to hurt and kill another woman, but the policeman could not have acted any other way. Had he shot the terrorist while he was unconscious, this could have been perceived as an immoral act. Yet we are a moral people, and in our Book of Books it says “thou shalt not murder.”
I do not precisely conform to the definition of a “good boy.” The proof of this is the order I issued, as Jerusalem police chief, to shoot a handcuffed terrorist wearing an explosive belt in March 2002. Although the terrorist was nabbed and his arms were handcuffed, he continued to struggle wildly and there was real danger that the explosive device will go off. Therefore, I gave the order to put a gun to his head and shoot him.
Yet that situation was not the same as the situation where the police officer decided not to shoot the terrorist when he was initially neutralized. The term “confirm kill” is immoral, and it has no legal basis.
Mickey Levy is the former Jerusalem District police chief
Mickey Levy is just plain wrong and the facts of the bulldozer case proves he is wrong.
As he points out himself the terrorist was able to come to and continue his rampage which cost a woman her life and a family untold heart ache and pain for years to come.
The terrorist sitting slumped in the drivers seat that was only wounded had the same potential to murder innocent people as the handcuffed terrorist that Mickey ordered to be shot, the proof is that he did in fact murder again.
Now if police officer Revital Nahum had run over and put a bunch of rounds into the terrorist head then she would have been a true hero.
The facts speak for themselves she failed in her duty to protect the civilians of Jerusalem.
Shooting a terrorist in a confirmed kill is not murder it is necessary and it is moral, we are not talking about shooting a criminal in the head. A criminal even one who is wanted for murder if he has been shot and is down the threat in most cases is over and they can be taken into custody.
A terrorist especialy a Muslim terrorist is bent on murdering as many people as they can and will be a threat until the security forces have removed them from the realm of the living.
Lastly if Mickey wants to bring in an argument from Judaism he must not pick and choose what he likes and doesn't like.
The Torah commands us not to committee murder, but we are also commanded to kill someone who is on their way to committee murder we as Jews are commanded to do the right thing.
The right thing is to get up and set and ambush and to eliminate the potential murderer on their way to doing the act
The lives we must protect are innocent lives and not those of the terrorist.
