Soldier aided price tag activists in thwarting attempts by security forces to stop attacks on Palestinian civilians.
By YAAKOV LAPPINUpdated: JANUARY 6, 2016 05:40A municipal worker paints over ‘price tag’ graffiti daubed in Hebrew on a wall of the Romanian Orthodox Church in Jerusalem, May 9, 2014.(photo credit: AMMAR AWAD / REUTERS)
An IDF soldier was found guilty by the Jaffa Military Court on Tuesday of leaking classified data to far-right activists and was sentenced to nearly four years in prison.Cpl. Elad Sela, who served in the Etzion Territorial Brigade, was convicted of giving secret data to price tag activists aimed at thwarting attempts by security forces to stop their activity and their attacks on Palestinian civilians.In addition to the lengthy prison sentence, the court imposed a suspended sentence and demoted him to the rank of private.The court found Sela guilty of searching through classified computer systems to look for information on price tag suspects from the West Bank settlement of Bat Ein, where he lives, and to locate planned activities against them by security forces.The IDF said he passed on information for a lengthy period, right up until his arrest, helping price tag activists prepare for raids by security forces “and continue their hostile activities against the Palestinian population.”The court found that Sela’s actions “harmed state security” and “Such activities have to be ejected from the military and punished severely,” the court added.