The Palestinian Authority appeals to the ICC after the acquittal of the Israeli who killed an autistic man “in cold blood”

July 8 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Palestinian Authority has called for the intervention of the International Criminal Court (ICC) so that justice is done after the acquittal of Israeli policeman Iyad al Hallaq, an autistic Palestinian who was shot dead in “cold blood” in 2020 in Jerusalem.

“There is no justice under the illegal Israeli occupation and apartheid regime. Israel, the occupying power, and its rotten judiciary continue to endorse war crimes and crimes against humanity against an occupied people and provide absolute immunity to its occupying forces and its agents”, the Ministry pointed out in a statement collected by the Palestinian news agency WAFA.

Thus, he has denounced the “regrettable whitewashing of the deliberate murder” of Iyad al Hallaq when he was going to a school for students with special needs on May 30, 2020.

“Israeli’s broken judicial system is key to its apartheid regime and its colonial aspirations, to racist and violent settlers who feed on systematic discrimination and Jewish supremacy. Iyad’s death was not an ‘honest mistake,’ but rather that it is part of a pattern and direct execution of criminal Israeli laws and declared intentions to murder Palestinians,” he added.

An Israeli District Court issued last Thursday the acquittal of the agent because he “acted recklessly” but the death was “a tragic mistake” due to “self-defense” despite the fact that the Palestinian had no weapon.

For this reason, the Palestinian Authority considers that “the ICC Prosecutor’s Office has the responsibility and the insurmountable obligation to investigate for Iyad and for the countless Palestinian victims of Israel’s culture of impunity.” In addition, he stresses that if it is investigated, it would be a “deterrent” to “avoid Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people.”

Al Hallaq fled when two members of the Israeli Border Police tried to arrest him in East Jerusalem and hid in a garbage collection room, where he was shot.

The man was unarmed and would have been mistakenly identified as an attacker. Several witnesses were questioned and Isarel maintains that there are no recordings from the security cameras that recorded his death.