Meanwhile, Netanyahu is accusing the Palestinian Authority with creating the climate that led to the incident, in which Palestinian demonstrators demanding the release of activists held in Israeli jails threw stones at the car carrying the soldier, then dragged him from the car, hit him in the head repeatedly with a rock and took his army-issue rifle.

Television footage of the incident was broadcast repeatedly in Israel, touching off debate on how he should have responded.

The army concluded that Myara should have opened fire instead of running from his assailants. But he has stated that when the stone-throwing began, he was hit in the head with a rock and was incapacitated.

By the time he had a chance to recover, he said, he was surrounded by the protesters, who beat him.

His mother, Lisa Weinmann-Myara, described her son's handling of the situation as "heroic," adding that he had been serving in the area for only three weeks and had not been given adequate training for dealing with such a situation.

In a related decision, the army decided to discipline two officers whose jeep was also stoned at the intersection minutes before the incident involving Myara.

The officers were cited for driving on without attempting to disperse the stone-throwers or report the incident.