Shooting a fleeing Arab in ‘self-defense’ – a problematic pattern
What is clear is that Halak should not have died, that he was killed while running away – the opposite of posing an imminent danger – and that this is a reoccurring phenomenon.
By YONAH JEREMY BOBAn Israeli border police officer and Israeli soldier at a temporary "checkpoint" in Jerusalem on April 16, 2020.(photo credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90)
It is not yet clear what the legal consequences will be for the border policeman who shot and killed Iyad al-Halak, a 32-year-old east Jerusalem resident and special needs student, while he was on his way to school Saturday morning.Proving a criminal case beyond a reasonable doubt regarding an incident which occurred in the field and with multiple parties involved can be a tall-order.What is clear is that Halak should not have died, that he was killed while running away – the opposite of posing an imminent danger – and that this is a reoccurring phenomenon.What is more unusual about this case is that it happened in east Jerusalem.Jerusalem is supposed to be treated like the rest of Israel within the Green Line, and unlike in the West Bank, where Israel says that there is an ongoing armed conflict with Palestinian terrorism – even if it is mostly simmering these days.Even in the West Bank, Border Police and the IDF have stricter rules of engagement regarding the use of lethal force as compared to the Gaza, Syrian or Lebanese borders which are viewed as more explosive.On a spectrum, using lethal force would be most limited in east Jerusalem, with fewer restrictions in the West Bank and the least amount of restrictions being along the other borders.Although the most common case is an IDF or border policeman justifiably shooting a Palestinian who is in the process of attempting an attack, there are a line of cases where the shooting was clearly problematic.Two recent cases included fleeing Palestinians and a third involved a border policeman who shot a Palestinian who was too far away to pose a threat.In mid-2018, the state prosecution had to drop an indictment mid-trial against two IDF soldiers for negligence in the killing of unarmed 16-year-old Samir Awad in 2013.
The state’s indictment said Awad was running away from the soldiers when he was shot even though he had not committed any violent acts and presented no concrete or potential danger.Earlier in 2018, Israeli border policeman Ben Deri was sentenced to a mere nine months in prison when he had originally been indicted for manslaughter in the killing of 17-year-old Palestinian Nadim Nuwara in May 2014.In both of these cases, manslaughter charges were considered, but in the end, the charges were reduced or withdrawn entirely.Finally, there was a messy decision to close the case of IDF Col. Yisrael Shomer who shot 17-year-old Muhammad al-Casba in 2015 as he was fleeing.The Association for Civil Rights in Israel has petitioned the High Court of Justice to reopen the case in light of Shomer contradicting himself in explaining how and why Casbah was killed.All of these cases had twists. In all three cases the Israeli shooter claimed that they did not intend to kill, but rather to arrest the person who they shot by wounding or slowing them down. In two of the cases, the killed Palestinian had taken some kind of aggressive action before they were shot – though they did not pose any danger when the actual decision to shoot them was made.But in all of the cases, it was not at all clear that they had to be arrested. Further, deciding to shoot bullets, which can easily kill someone instead of merely wounding them, was either illegal or questionable.The charges were reduced or withdrawn because of evidentiary problems, not because authorities approved of the security forces’ actions.This could happen here as well, since initial reports indicate that the border policeman who shot Halak might have acted on incorrect information given to him by Jerusalem police officers. The information reportedly stated that Halak had a weapon and still posed a danger as he fled.It remains true that shooting an attacker who is coming at you with a weapon and starting to get close enough to be dangerous is legally justified.But fleeing is different. As this pattern of problematic cases continues, there may be more pressure on the IDF and Border Police to clarify that if someone is fleeing, lethal force is almost never going to be warranted.
