I haven’t been sleeping, these nights. As the festival of Shavuot ended, I read about riots across America, a response not only to the George Floyd murder in Minneapolis but of systematic oppression and police brutality in response to peaceful protests.

Then I read about a 32-year old autistic Palestinian shot dead by an Israeli soldier meters from his school because “he looked armed” (he wasn’t) and when shouted to stop he jumped behind some garbage to hide.

This is personal to me. That could be my son. He might have responded that way. He is the smartest person I have ever met, perfectly able to attend school and likely would have responded similarly to shouting. That frankly probably would have been him by now had he not enjoyed white privilege; I can think of more than one occasion that his skin color has probably saved his life.

And then I read a response to Eyad Hallaq’s killing by a prominent Israeli lawyer contending that his parents are to blame for “allowing” a special needs person out on his own. A man who then blames Palestinians writ large for being so stupid, and so violent forcing “us” to kill them.

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