This right-wing Israeli politician was left in hospital after he barged in on people mourning an autistic man gunned down by Israeli cops last weekend.
Right wing hardliner Yehudah Glick, 54, claims he was only visiting the family home of 32-year-old Palestinian Iyad Halak to pay his respects when he was reportedly thrown down a flight of stairs by around 10 people.
Glick, a longtime activist for Jewish prayer rights on the Temple Mount, said: “I went in the name of people who want peace, a gesture of goodwill.
“When I entered the home and presented myself to the mourners, around 10 people suddenly grabbed me, lifted me up and threw me down a flight and a half of stairs.”
The politician claimed other people began beating him on the ground before one of Iyad’s relatives pulled them away.
He was then admitted to the Shaare Zedek Medical Centre with minor injuries.
The police reportedly shot Iyad Halak on 30th May because he was holding a mobile phone they supposedly thought was a weapon and despite his carer reportedly telling them he was “disabled”.
Iyad Halak was shot dead in Jerusalem’s Old City by Israeli Border Police officers who claimed he was holding “a suspicious object” and then suddenly ran away.
Local media said the 32-year-old Palestinian man was diagnosed as being on the low-functioning end of the Autism spectrum (ASD) as a boy, and he had problems with communication.
He was reportedly shot dead by Israeli cops on his way to his special needs class while holding a mobile phone he used to call his parents when he got there.
Iyad’s cousin Dr. Hatem Awiwi told local media: “He didn’t know what a soldier is or what a weapon is. He saw a stranger and fled, and then they shot him.”
According to Warda Abu Hadid, the autistic man’s carer, she informed the armed Israeli officers that Iyad was “disabled” and pleaded with them in Hebrew not to open fire.
After shooting the victim, the cops reportedly turned their guns on the carer.
She said: “They came up to me, pressed their guns against me and said ‘give us the pistol he gave you’. I said to them ‘he didn’t give me a pistol, these are his mask and gloves’, but they didn’t listen.”
Following the incident, hundreds of people protested against police brutality in several cities across Israel and the West Bank on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, Public Security Minister Amir Ohana urged the public to remain calm and not “import Minneapolis”, in reference to the protests taking place across America in honour of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man who was killed by a white police officer on 25th May.
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Story By: Lee Bullen, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Newsflash
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