“We talked, me and the soldiers. I told them: ‘I work at the center for people with special needs. Eyad is my patient.’ And Eyad was alive, on the ground, and kept saying, ‘I’m with her.’ And then they shot him again, after five minutes, right in front of me.”
Eyad al-Hallaq was the flower of his loving family, but an Israeli court said this week that the autistic man’s killing in 2020 was an “honest mistake.” The case demonstrates the bankruptcy of Zionism, which always privileges Jews over Palestinians.
An Israeli district court acquitted the border police officer who shot and killed Eyad al-Hallaq, a Palestinian autistic man in 2020 who was unarmed and running away from police.
Israeli prosecutors filed an indictment for reckless manslaughter against a border police officer for his role in the fatal shooting of Eyad al-Hallaq in May 2020. Al-Hallaq family’s attorneys said that while this was “an important step,” the charge was “not sufficient to achieve even a small part of justice.”
If there ever was a year in recent history that was truly unforgettable, 2020 is it. In Palestine, COVID-19 did not stop the occupation, and in many cases exacerbated the devastating effects of 53 years under Israeli military rule. On top of the pandemic, we witnessed major shifts in global politics with widespread regional normalization, and the defeat of US President Donald Trump. Meanwhile, global movements for justice like Black Lives Matter, and the fight for justice in Palestine continued to transcend borders, thrusting marginalized voices into the mainstream in ways that were once unimaginable.
The confluence of George Floyd’s murder with the coronavirus pandemic has made it possible for Black Lives Matter’s abolitionist message to be adopted by millions. This message is increasingly including Palestine.
George Floyd’s death and the violence that Palestinians who live under Israeli occupation face both reflect the oppression of racist, unjust societies.
On May 30, Eyad al-Halaq, a Palestinian with autism, was hunted and executed by Israeli Police in Jerusalem near the school that gave him joy in life. The oppressive occupation is at the root of his killing.
The inextricable similarity between the murders of George Floyd and Eyad El-Halaq has reinvigorated the longtime bond between the struggle for Palestinian liberation and the fight for black liberation in the US.
A demonstration in Haifa led by groups working with disabled Palestinians makes connections between the murder of Eyad al-Halaq and the Black Lives Matter movement.