Herzog clears Elor Azaria’s record on a Saturday night, and Haaretz files it under Elections

The announcement came on Saturday 19 September, shortly before 20:00, and was reported at 20:01 by Haaretz’s Jonathan Lis and Yaniv Kubovich: President Isaac Herzog would shorten the remaining erasure period on the criminal record of Elor Azaria, convicted of manslaughter for shooting an incapacitated Palestinian assailant in Hebron in 2016, effectively expunging it. Haaretz reported the step was taken “despite objections from the military,” noting the IDF had previously opposed a pardon “citing his lack of remorse.” Defence Minister Israel Katz requested it and said it sent a message that “we do not leave our soldiers behind.” The Media Line named Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir among senior officers opposed, and reported that per the President’s Office the decision clears the record before 2032, the year it would have been erased automatically under Israeli law. Al Jazeera, with AFP, carried it the same evening.

Two days later Haaretz returned to the clock rather than the file. Its 21 September analysis noted the announcement landed “minutes before 8 P.M.” on a Saturday, “when the evening news lineups had already been set and were largely filled with weekend features,” and ran under a headline saying Herzog knew the stakes “so close to an election.” The piece sits in Haaretz’s Israel Elections 2026 section. The vote is due by 27 October. Polling since candidate lists closed has hardened: a Zman Yisrael survey reported in the Times of Israel’s 17 September liveblog gave Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar 24 seats to Likud’s 22, with Naftali Bennett’s B’Yachad on 14 and Yisrael Beytenu, Shas and UTJ on nine each — and put the pro-Netanyahu bloc at 51 because Ofer Winter’s list fails the threshold. A Jerusalem Post survey of five post-list polls found Yashar largest in four; an i24NEWS poll had Likud first. Channel 12 had the blocs at 52 apiece.

Assessment: The act is confirmed; the motive is an editorial claim, and readers should see the seam. Herzog is not on a ballot, and the beneficiary of the framing is Katz, who asked for it and got the quotable line. What is worth watching is the placement decision: by filing a presidential clemency under Elections 2026, Haaretz is arguing that the presidency has become a campaign instrument — an argument, not a finding. Distrust the reporting of Zamir’s personal opposition, which is attributed to the institution and relayed second-hand. The same weekend produced Itamar Ben Gvir’s demand for a hanging. Symbolic security politics is the currency of this campaign, and the supply is being expanded from unexpected offices.