How a Palestinian man with autism was killed by Israeli police

One year on, a mother remembers the day her son, Eyad al-Halaq, was shot and killed by Israeli police.

On the morning of May 30, 2020, 31-year-old Eyad al-Halaq was making his way to the special needs school he attended inside the Old City of Jerusalem when he was shot and killed by Israeli police. Eyad had severe autism and, according to his parents, the mental age of an eight-year-old. No formal charges have so far been brought against the Israeli police officer who shot him despite calls from Eyad’s teacher, Wardeh abu Hadid, who witnessed the incident, as well as from Eyad’s family and the lawyers representing them. An investigation by Israeli police into the incident is ongoing. “Eyad was the energy in our home, and now our home has collapsed, it’s frighteningly quiet now,” his mother Rana, 58, says. Rana – known to her family and friends as Um Eyad (mother of Eyad) – is a retired teacher who lives in the family home in Wadi al-Joz, a neighbourhood in East Jerusalem, with her husband, Khairy, and 36-year-old daughter, Jumana.