Rana al-Halak serves soft drinks to those present in the room.
Even without being a doctor, you can feel the tray in her hands shaking and threatening to turn over at any moment.
Since her autistic son Iyad al-Khalak was shot dead by a Border Police officer on May 30, 2020, she has become a broken vessel that nothing can comfort.
"Every day at two-thirty I wait for the door of the house to open and Iyad to arrive," Rana says.
"I remember how he would quietly enter, close the door behind him, change clothes, put the dirty ones in the laundry and then go over and ask 'What did you cook today?'
"If he came and did not find me, he would get upset and call 'Where are you?' .
We usually move to the agenda upon hearing of the neutralization of suspects on the Palestinian side.
This is the reality in which we live.
Stress, apprehension and paranoia, that anyone who passes by us may be the next terrorist.
Iyad was a big guy, 1.85m, but on the autistic continuum, who did not intend to harm a person.
"He was 32, but he acted like a 9-year-old," his mother says in pain.
"What do we have left? I do not care about anything. Today I do not go to visit a family and do not go out for friendships. I just go up to his grave or go to the doctor."
Rana: "Every day I wait for the door of the house to open and Iyad to come. He was 32, but he acted like 9. What do we have left? I do not care about anything. Today I do not go to visit family and do not go out for friends, just go up to his grave "
Wanted to get married and start a family.
Rana al-Halak with a picture of Iyad, Photo: Oren Ben Hakon
"His teacher would take him to the soldiers standing in the old city, and she would say, 'Say hello to them, shake hands,'" says Khiri, Iyad's father.
"Even today I do not say that all the soldiers are bad, there are also good ones among them, but believe me, the way Iyad did that day he went through every morning for the last six years of his life. Sensitive, the road to al-Aqsa. There's no way they didn't know him. So shoot him like that? "
"To this day, Iyad's classmate refuses to come to school," Rana adds.
"A lot of students there have developed a fear of wearing uniforms, policemen and soldiers."
"If there was a focus, the shots would not have been fired"
Iyad's death came shortly after two similar incidents of shooting to death innocent people: Yehuda Biyadga from Bat Yam, who was in a battle, was killed by a police officer in January 2019;
And Shirel a gang from Rosh HaAyin, who was mentally disturbed, was killed by a police officer in April 2020.
Killed in January 2019. Yehuda Biadga from Bat Yam, Photo: Courtesy of the family
Another incident occurred in May 2019, when a video in which police beat an autistic ultra-Orthodox child went viral.
The journalist and network anchor Melech Zilberschlag, who knew the boy, also published the video and wrote: "Great respect for the Israeli police. I have no idea what was there, but nothing in the world justifies such an amount of men beating up an autistic teenager. This horror will pass. "Silence and no one will take care of it, I wish I was lying."
The young man belonged to "Sheikh Sud", a special education school in Jerusalem, and the person who released him from detention was the director of the institution himself.
The police claimed that it was a violent demonstration following a decision not to hold a Lag B'Omer bonfire. On the other hand, it was alleged that the police were told during the incident that the child was mentally ill.
"The families themselves called us for help."
Shirel Bunch, Photo: Shirel Bunch
Benjamin Netanyahu, the then prime minister, called the al-Khalak family to share their grief, and even said at the cabinet meeting that "the whole incident will be investigated and lessons learned from it."
Netanyahu added that "a comprehensive investigation will be conducted by the police on the treatment of people with disabilities, on identification, diagnosis and functioning. On how to approach this sensitive issue. And I, as stated, express my deepest condolences to the family."
The then president, Reuven Rivlin, initiated the establishment of an inter-ministerial committee to deal with the enforcement and security forces' dealings with people with disabilities.
The committee was headed by the then director general of the Ministry of Welfare, Labor and Social Services, Avigdor Kaplan.
Already during the discussions, several difficulties arose, including the identification of the disability by the enforcement factor and the lack of familiarity of police officers and soldiers with the rights of people with disabilities, and vice versa - the difficulty of the person with a disability to identify the person facing him.
The committee's report, published in February 2021, recommended, among other things, the development of dedicated training for law enforcement agencies that would help change attitudes and perceptions toward people with disabilities, such as providing tools and practical knowledge to identify candidates, and tools for tailored communication. To carry a person with a disability that includes his details, or a police car inspector who will assist police officers in identification and understanding during the charged encounter.
It was a detailed report, but unfortunately the president changed, the government changed - and the recommendations were frozen. "We worked hard," says Sigal Peretz Yahalomi, executive director of Akim, who headed one of the subcommittees. And the soul, and in the end gave measured recommendations.
Unfortunately it has not progressed.
I have a feeling that during the Corona people were engaged in basics rather than developments and creating new responses, and a key player that came to conclusions and recommendations was the Ministry of Health, which we all know what it was all about.
But I'm still optimistic. "
Why?
"Because now there is a good chance, the corona is almost behind us, there are appeals for more things and also the correctness of the police. If the issue still falls between the chairs it will be sad, because in the tragic events the families themselves called us for help. "In the cases of Yehuda Biadga from Bat Yam and Shirel, a group from Rosh HaAyin. It hurt them so much, because if there was a focus on these shooting treatments, there would be no light bulbs."
Sigal Peretz Yahalomi: "We worked hard. People poured out their hearts and souls to us, and in the end gave measured recommendations. Unfortunately, it did not progress. I feel that during the Corona people were engaged in basics, not developments and creating new solutions."
"Optimistic."
Akim CEO Sigal Peretz Yahalomi, Photo: Courtesy of the person photographed
"Iyad's Plant"
The al-Halak family home is located in Wadi Jouz in East Jerusalem.
A modest apartment from which you can see the Mormon University on the Mount of Olives.
In the living room, where we talked, the walls are full of pictures and paintings of Iyad, who have sent people to the family during the two years since the tragedy.
In the center, the familiar image of the young man cannot be ignored, holding in his hand a flowerpot with succulent - a plant that has become identified with it, some even call it "Iyad's plant".
This picture was taken by Rana in the small yard of the house, which Iyad used to cultivate.
This was shortly before his death, while the Corona was raging, and Alvin, the educational institution where he studied, asked the parents to employ their children.
Rana commemorated Iyad while working in the garden.
"Everywhere I look I see Iyad's eyes following me," Khiri says as he looks at the picture.
He's really alive.
It's like asking me, 'What did you do today for my justice?' "
Diana (36) and Jumana (33), Iyad's sisters, work in teaching, but he, already at a young age, was diagnosed as different.
"When Iyad was two years old, I went to the doctors with him, but they did not find anything special," says Rana.
"Only when he was three and a half years old and did not speak did we go again, and then we were told he had autism."
How did you get it?
Khiri: "Everything is from God. We always said 'thank God', because he went, went. There are people in a much worse situation. Our child absorbed things. For example, if something went wrong at home, with electricity, I was not afraid, because he wanted to study I would say 'go fix it'. If he was in the room with us right now, he would sit, look at your face and know if you like him or not. "And he went into his room. He did not like noise. He really liked to be quiet, alone."
Iyad was sent as a child to quite a few schools and educational institutions.
More than once it was the noise and the multiplicity of people that made him congregate within himself.
When he crossed the age of 20, Khiri thought he might be able to join him for work at the marble factory in Anata.
Iyad started working there, but very quickly signaled to his father that the hustle and bustle around did not allow him to integrate.
As a last resort, the father decided to try the truck garage next to the marble factory.
He asked the owner to do him a favor and include his son in the place.
Especially in the vicinity of the heavy vehicles, Iyad felt comfortable and did all the work they were assigned to do, but unfortunately for the family, this experience did not last long either.
Khiri ran into a medical problem.
After years of breathing dust from the marble works his lungs were damaged, and he needed surgery that disabled him for a long time.
Iyad did not agree to go to work without his father by his side, and also stayed at home.
Rana and Khiri consulted with doctors about their son's future, and were advised to contact Alvin, an organization founded in 1984 that operates, among other things, in collaboration with the Ministry of Welfare and Social Security.
The association currently provides services to about 5,200 people with disabilities, and also provides training, preparation and job support programs in the competitive market.
At first, she accompanied Iyad a teacher on behalf of the association, so that he could learn the way from his home to the Alvin al-Quds branch on Faisal Street, near the Lions Gate.
He learned the regular way very quickly, getting to know the ascent on the road and the path near the cemetery.
Every morning he left the house at about six o'clock, and by seven o'clock he was ready and willing.
Rana shows us her son's attendance page, which shows how accurate he always is, stamp on the minute.
Yaakov Borowski: "There are understandable steps. You try to communicate with the person with a disability in his language, and all this is done under the supervision that there is really no dealing with a suicide bomber. In the past there were attempts to exploit such people, who would carry explosive belts."
"This is the terrain."
Yaakov Borowski, Photo: Efrat Eshel
"For six years he was in this institution, studying electricity, tailoring, but did not like these professions. He wanted to be a cook," says Rana.
"He was very attached to cooking. The week before he was killed he cooked almost 100kg of rice at school, did it himself.
Put oil, put some bread to see that the oil heats up.
The rice was distributed in the branches of the school in Jerusalem. "
Iyad really liked Alvin.
When the corona began, Rana says, and they announced that the gates of the institution were closing, she had to take him there so that he could see with his own eyes that the place was closed, because he did not believe.
But not only was he good at Alvin - Iyad also knew a girl there who suffered from a slight disability in her leg.
"He kept talking about her and writing her love letters and saying he was going to marry her," Rana says.
"He would say to me, 'Mom, everyone I know has gotten married and only I do not, do you want me to be left alone?'. I told him, 'Of course I want you to get married.'
Everything was already ready to secure Iyad's future.
The family built him and his future wife a house in the town of Elazaria, east of Jerusalem.
"Believe me, if you go in there now you will find that a match is not missing a name, everything is closed and ready," says Khiri.
"Now we'll have to sell the house."
Tragedy on the way to the institution
On Saturday, May 30, 2020, Iyad was due to finish his training at Alvin, and know where he would be assigned to work as an assistant cook.
"He was so excited," says Khiri.
"On Saturday we usually stay home. Iyad got up at about four in the morning to prepare himself, and when we woke up he was no longer at home, he wanted to know where he would work. He was very upset."
The family heard what happened that morning only from testimonies and stories.
To date, they say, they have not seen the security camera videos nor have they received the autopsy report.
Border guards testified that at six in the morning, during a change of guard, a report was received on the communications network about a fear of a terrorist in the field. The policeman suspected of shooting went on a chase with his commander. The policeman, who is on trial today on suspicion of manslaughter, was a young man who had just finished his training.
"He went down the stairs towards the soldiers, and until now we do not know what really happened," Khiri says.
"Did the policeman shout at him, was Iyad afraid, ran away? His caregiver, Warda, who was there, shouted at the policemen 'he is disabled, he is disabled', while he told them 'I am with her', but it did not help him."
The policeman claimed that it was a mistake, that a terrorist was reported in connection.
Khiri: "What did you want him to say? Obviously he said there was a mistake. This is their job. Iyad had a badge that says which institution he belongs to. The officer of that policeman said he shouted 'Do not kill him' and he also did not listen to the officer."
It was several hours before Alvin was called to tell the al-Khalak family what had happened to their son.
At first it was said that he was only injured, but by that time Iyad was already dead from his wounds.
"That day they came to search our house," Khiri adds.
"They turned over all the rooms and looked in his room, in the closet. I came to look at the commander, and I told him 'you haven't looked under the bed yet, there is a box there, check it too.'"
Rana shows us some objects that Iyad carried on his last day.
A torn wallet with pictures of family members, pictures that Iyad took with him everywhere.
"He had a new cell phone," she says.
"When I would call him he would not answer, he would say 'the device is broken', and when I bought him a new one I said 'now you will have to answer, do not tell me later there is a problem'. When he was killed, the device was in his possession for maybe five days and the police returned it empty About him. "
The police realized that the young man's death could ignite not only East Jerusalem.
Demonstrations also began in Jaffa demanding justice for Iyad.
"After he was killed, we wanted to pray in al-Aqsa so that the funeral could take place, but the police did not agree," says Khiri.
"We were told, 'You can only stand at the gates of the mosque, and there will be 20 people.' Maybe 10,000 came.
"They said that in the cemetery in Av a-Zahara we would do the ceremony in the parking lot, and from there straight to the burial. I did not agree. I told them 'we will bring Iyad home and from here the funeral will come.' "We asked those present not to wave Palestinian flags. I did not want there to be a mess."
Why not? For you, Iyad is not a symbol?
Rana: "He is a symbol of autism."
Khiri: "Even before they worked on preparing the lawsuit, the lawyers are talking to me about the money, and where will I pay? We will wait for the court decision and then file a lawsuit, but it can take a long time. People asked 'Do you want money?' Our son "
"Iyad is a symbol of autism."
Khiri al-Halak, Photo: Oren Ben Hakon
"Must know how to communicate"
Retired Superintendent Jacob Borowski, who previously commanded the Northern District of Police, says there is a clear protocol for meeting people with disabilities.
"There are understandable stages," he explains.
"You try to communicate with the person with a disability in his language, and all this is done under the supervision that there is really no dealing with a suicide bomber. In the past there have been attempts to exploit such people, who would carry explosive belts. In order to maintain the privacy of the individual and keep people away, and understand who you are dealing with. "
Could there be glitches?
"Only those who are not in these situations are not wrong. What is needed is not to shorten the training days of the officer or policeman and teach ourselves that these cases are the street, the area. Reality cannot be ignored. There are people with disabilities in every corner, so we must know how to communicate."
Although no progress has been made in implementing the recommendations of the committee initiated by the president at the time, Balvin, the association responsible for Iyad's training, took the issue under their responsibility.
Since last year, the association has been in contact with the police academy, which sends trainees and officers to Alvin to undergo a short training so that they know how to proceed in the next case.
"They come for a full day as part of a tour, participate in activities with the young people, and have the opportunity to have conversations and ask questions," says Yaron Samimi, VP of Community Relations at Alvin. Of Iyad, because this is a sensitive issue for all of us. "
The problem in such cases is in the media.
"We were thinking of issuing a card to the guys that would show that they could not express themselves, like Iyad for example. A card stating that the person has autism, and has no abilities and rebelliousness, and will have phone numbers of a caregiver and the family. It is not an easy process, because it is done "Even thinking together with people with disabilities - what it will look like on their part, does it make some of them feel uncomfortable. There is no doubt that something more active needs to be produced."
"Support mainly from Jews"
The al-Halak family did not want government representatives to come to comfort at the time, and when MK Yehuda Glick did so, he was attacked at the exit of the mourning tent in Wadi Jouz. Jews and Arabs, but on the road, down here, we set up a mourning tent, and I tell you that for every ten Arabs there were thirty Jews.
Even the ultra-Orthodox came to comfort.
At first we wanted to rent a hall, but because of the corona they did not allow it, so we brought a tent for 15,000 shekels. "
Did you not want Israeli help?
"Where he was killed, the municipality wanted to build something in his memory. We did not agree. We said that if there was a place, it would be built at our expense. We could not be treated once in a while. With you? '. I replied:' This is our prime minister, I can not answer him? '".
The hearing regarding the incident continues to this day in court, while there is a ban on publishing the face and name of police officer Shira Bayad.
Only in June 2021 was the indictment filed against the police officer on a charge of manslaughter, and at the end of February 2022, almost two years after the incident, the trial opened.
"My son was killed, you know who killed him, so why continue to litigate in court?"
Asks Rana.
"I was told that such a trial could take years."
Compared to other cases of killing people with disabilities by police, this case also incorporates the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which adds a lot of noise and interest to the coverage of the incident and a constant flood of reactions, respectively.
The Israeli policeman receives local support, among other things through a campaign on social networks.
"A fighter, not a criminal," "he sought to enlist in meaningful service, giving up engaging in a sport in which he excelled and suddenly found himself on an unprecedented charge - killed lightly - sentenced to up to 12 years in prison," the campaign said.
Particularly extreme voices even called the policeman a "hero," including in the faces of the al-Khalek couple when they came to court.
Y., the policeman, speaks for himself in a video that was distributed with his face blurred.
"I received information about an armed terrorist, I followed the procedures and what I was taught to save a life. Only in retrospect did it become clear that he was autistic. No one knew. I could not know either."
E., his mother, adds: "I did not dream that the state would abandon the son it received from me."
A., his father, who was also a Border Patrol fighter, supports: "He was sure that murderous terrorists would be his enemy, but he found the country against him."
On the other hand, it was claimed that the al-Halak family belonged to the transparent wing.
If Iyad was not an exceptional case of an autistic who was accidentally shot, his parents might have disappeared into the conflict jungle, which presents new deaths every week.
At first, the voices of Arab MKs, such as Ayman Odeh and Ahmad Tibi, were heard, but the al-Halak family says they had not heard from them for a long time.
The surprising support, they say, comes especially from Jews.
"Almost every week they are here," says Khiri.
"A girl named Ruhama comes to us twice a week. Or Doron, a veterinarian from Tel Aviv, who decided to help rehabilitate the garden that Iyad nurtured. In court, those who stood outside were mostly Jews."
Do you want monetary compensation?
Khiri: "Even before they worked on preparing the lawsuit, the lawyers are talking to me about the money, and where will I pay? We will wait for the court decision and then file a lawsuit. But as the lawyer representing us said, it can take a long time. People asked 'Do you want'? Money? ', We replied that we want our son. "
"They come for a full day as part of a tour, participate in activities with the young people, and have the opportunity to have conversations and ask questions," says Yaron Samimi, VP of Community Relations at Alvin. Of Iyad, because this is a sensitive issue for all of us. "
"Not an easy process."
Yaron Samimi, Photo: Amnon Horesh, YouTube
"Iyad's Death Finished Me"
At age 65, Khiri is unhealthy.
His lungs are sick, but he continues to smoke and work in the cutting that kitchens have that need to bring a livelihood home.
His body is covered in wounds, a rash he says, which doctors attribute to nerves.
"When you see who killed your son standing in front of you, how calm can you be?"
He asks.
"But I will continue to go to trial because I do not want them to say that our child went and we forgot about him. I am going to see that justice is done."
Rana, 55, also suffers from health problems.
Her heart is weak, her eyesight is poor.
She shows us a large box loaded with medicine.
"Iyad's death finished me off," she admits.
The doctors told her that her problem was no less mental than physical, but she was unable to control the condition, which was only getting worse.
"At our holidays and weddings we say 'Mabruk, Happy holiday'. I don't like to hear those words. Family and friends already know I don't come to events."
Khiri and Rana lead us to Iyad's room.
They did not change anything in it.
Khiri says that Iyad liked to surf the Internet on a computer and watch cartoons on television.
In his free time he read the Koran, and every Friday he would wait for his father outside, to go together to prayer in the mosque.
Rana keeps almost every item, even the masks Iyad wore against Corona.
To stay in his scent house.
Every night, for the past two years, she falls asleep in her late son's room.
"The pain is huge," she says.
"My two daughters will look fine to you, and think they went on with their lives, but they, too, inside, like me. All their lives they knew Iyad, and always knew he was the center of the house. He did not have to say what he wanted, we already knew. I'm three. "Twice a week to the grave, she tells him what happened to us. Sometimes I want to lay my head there and stay. I'm not afraid of anything, because I lost the most precious of all. I became indifferent to life."
Last month, the funeral of journalist Sheerin Abu-Aqla, who was caught in an exchange of gunfire in Jenin between Palestinian militants and IDF forces, left St. Joseph's Hospital in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood. Brought them back two years.
Khiri: "Even in court I asked what would be the end with us? I thought at least my son's death would move something, but nothing progresses. After all, what did Sheerin do? Like Iyad - nothing. She stood with a microphone and was killed. People here just die, and believe it. "I wish I had it different. I remember we used to go to Jewish weddings, they would come to eat with us. But instead of the situation between the peoples getting better, it will only get worse. I have grandchildren, and I know it will not be good here."
Many Jews also paid with their lives.
"I do not accept harm to innocent people. We are a family that wants peace. We went through the greatest pain when we lost Iyad, a pain that I do not wish on anyone, neither Jew nor Arab. It is time to prevent further killing. For us, man is man."
The Israel Police responded:
"The investigation into the tragic case was conducted by DIP (belonging to the Ministry of Justice) and not by the police.
At the same time, after the incident, all the necessary actions were taken in order to rule out suspicion of terrorism or to take advantage of the unfortunate case of disorder, incitement and violence of any kind.
"Accordingly, all decisions made and police enforcement actions taken after the incident were in accordance with the assessment of the situation at the time and based on all relevant professional considerations. We note that the Israeli police To pray in the Temple Mount area legally. "
shishabat@israelhayom.co.il
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