‘DENIGRATING’

Israeli Cop Who Killed Autistic Palestinian Man Is Charged

Prosecutors say the officer shot Eyad Hallaq while he was cornered, but he only faces a manslaughter rap.

The Israeli police officer who shot and killed an unarmed autistic Palestinian man—allegedly firing at him while he was cornered and again after he was wounded—has been charged with reckless manslaughter. The absence of a murder charge is sure to infuriate critics who have accused Israel of trying to whitewash the death of Eyad Hallaq, 32, in May 2020. The Associated Press reports that in announcing the charges against the unnamed border officer, prosecutors—who claim that there is somehow no security footage of the encounter in Jerusalem’s surveillance-heavy Old City—called it a “serious and unfortunate incident.” Ayman Odeh, head of the Joint List of Arab parties in Israel’s parliament, said the manslaughter charge was “denigrating.”