Israel’s Rivlin targeted by right-wing media campaign

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin has become the target of an aggressive right-wing social media campaign after refusing on Sunday to pardon a soldier convicted of killing an unarmed -- and injured -- Palestinian last year following an alleged attack.

Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told Anadolu Agency that police were "looking into" the media campaign but had yet to open an official investigation.

Right-wing activists have shared images online showing Rivlin wearing the iconic black-and-white keffiyeh scarf -- associated with the Palestinian resistance -- accompanied by messages describing him as a "Nazi" and "traitor".

Rivlin, for his part, has defended his decision not to pardon Elor Azaria, saying an amnesty for the former soldier -- who already had his sentence reduced by four months by the head of Israel's military -- would "harm the resilience to the Israel Defense Forces and the State of Israel".

Azaria was initially sentenced to 18 months behind bars for killing Abdel-Fattah al-Sharif, a young Palestinian man, in March of last year in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron -- a sentence denounced by many critics as too light.

Many on Israel's right-wing, however, said Azaria should never have been convicted in the first place.

Azaria became the subject of an investigation after an activist with Israeli rights group B'Tselem captured him on film fatally shooting al-Sharif -- who had already been disarmed and injured -- in the head.

The ensuing high-profile legal case prompted a split in the Israeli government after the army took the rare step of investigating an Israeli soldier for killing a Palestinian.