This video, provided by B’tselem, an Israeli group that monitors the occupation, clearly shows a soldier executing a Palestinian in Hebron. He is killed with a shot to the head after he is already disabled and lying on the ground, posing no threat to anyone.

The Israeli army has called this a “severe incident” and is investigating. Let’s see how seriously they deal with the soldier. One can be sure he would face no action had this not been caught on film.

What I find most significant about the clip is the routine way it is viewed by all those in the vicinity. Two Israeli officers standing close by don’t bat an eyelid as the Palestinian man is murdered next to them. The soldier who executes the Palestinian even confers with another officer seconds before the deed, apparently getting permission.

All of them seem to view this as standard operating procedure. And it is: in Israeli military parlance, it is called “confirming the kill”.

 Jonathan Cook is a Nazareth- based journalist and winner of the Martha Gellhorn Special Prize for Journalism