‘We need help': Family pleads for release of US teenager held by Israel

Al Jazeera

6 days ago

Washington, DC – Israeli authorities have been detaining an American teenager for nearly six months without trial for allegedly throwing rocks at Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, a claim the 16-year-old's family denies while expressing concern for his deteriorating health.
Mohammed Ibrahim, a Palestinian-American who was born in the US state of Florida, has been completely cut off from his family since his arrest in February without visitation or telephone rights, his father and uncle said.
According to an Israeli military interrogation video obtained by the family and seen by Al Jazeera on Wednesday, Mohammed denied accusations that he was throwing rocks at Israeli vehicles near his village north of Ramallah.
Zaher Ibrahim, the jailed teenager's father, said on Wednesday that the family has received reports that Mohammed is losing weight drastically and suffering from a skin infection. Ibrahim said he is concerned about his son's wellbeing.
'Of course, we have fear,' he said. 'When you can't visit him and you can't get a phone call from him, what do you know? We don't know if he's dead … There's nothing we know.'
According to the family, United States officials visited Mohammed in detention weeks after he was arrested. But an email from a consular officer suggests that the officials were unable to gain access to him earlier in July.
'The Israel Prison Service updated us yesterday that your son suffers from scabies, and he is being treated by a doctor. We requested [an] update regarding his healing,' the email said.
Scabies, caused by an infestation of mites, causes extreme itching and rashes across the body.
'We hope to see him next week or the week after when he heals,' the email read, pledging to keep the family 'updated'.
The Israeli military, its Ministry of Defence and its Government Press Office did not respond to Al Jazeera's request for comment by the time of publication.
The US State Department declined to answer Al Jazeera's questions about Mohammed's case or confirm or deny his detention, citing 'privacy considerations'.
'The Department has no higher priority than the safety and security of US citizens,' a department spokesperson wrote in a note to Al Jazeera.
'Whenever a US citizen is detained abroad, the Department works to provide consular assistance, which may include visiting detained US citizens to ensure they have access to necessary medication or medical attention and facilitating authorized communications with their family or others.'
The US provides billions of dollars in military aid to Israel annually as well as diplomatic backing at the United Nations – assistance that has increased significantly since the start of the war on Gaza.
'We get swept under the rug'
Mohammed was arrested during a raid by heavily armed Israeli troops at his family home in al-Mazraa ash-Sharqiya, north of Ramallah, at dawn on February 16, according to his family.
He is facing charges related to rock-throwing, but his relatives say they are worried that his health is deteriorating in detention as his court hearings are routinely postponed.
Ibrahim also expressed concern that Israeli prosecutors may use evidence obtained by torture to incriminate his son.
Mohammed's family is urgently calling for the US government to secure his release before it's too late. The teenager is the first cousin of Sayfollah Musallet, who was beaten to death by Israeli settlers in July in the West Bank.
Mohammed's arrest came amid escalating violence by Israeli forces and settlers in the occupied West Bank as the war on Gaza rages on.
The Israeli military has regularly carried out deadly raids and home demolitions across the West Bank. For their part, Israeli settlers often descend on Palestinian communities and ransack entire neighbourhoods.
Mohammed's relatives say his ordeal underscores the US's unwillingness to protect even its own citizens from Israeli abuses.
'It's obvious we get swept under the rug. And as far as getting help or investigations or some type of justice, we don't know,' said Zeyad Kadur, Mohammed's uncle.
'Eight Americans have been killed in the last 19 months. Where is our place in line? Are we number nine?'
According to the nonprofit Defense for Children International-Palestine (DCI-P), Israel detains as many as 700 Palestinian children annually.
'Just a child'
Mohammed turned 16 in jail in March. His family said that US officials have promised to push for an improvement in his jailhouse conditions and seek his release.
Other than updates from the embassy, all the family knows about Mohammed is through reports from former child inmates who saw him in jail. They also catch glimpses of him on video feeds during his court appearances.
Kadur, Mohammed's uncle, said the family estimates that the teenager has lost 13kg (28 pounds) in detention, more than a fourth of his body weight.
At Megiddo Prison, the same facility where Mohammed is being held, 17-year-old detainee Walid Ahmad died in March due to 'prolonged malnutrition', according to DCI-P.
Walid, who had been held for six months without a charge, also suffered from scabies.
Kadur stressed that Mohammed is 'just a child' who loves life, and he was eager to get his driver's licence in order to work at the family's ice cream shop in Florida during the summer.
'There's not a law, there's not a country, there's not anywhere in the world where children are imprisoned and that country calls itself a democracy and doesn't have visitations or phone calls, or any method – even letter writing – to [contact] the parents,' Kadur told Al Jazeera.
Musallet's case
While Mohammed is languishing in Israeli detention, the settlers who killed his cousin remain free.
In a separate incident, Yinon Levi, an Israeli settler who appeared to fatally shoot Palestinian activist Awdah Hathaleen on video earlier this week, was quickly released to house arrest.
Palestinians in the West Bank are tried in Israeli military courts that have a near 100-percent conviction rate. But settlers are mostly prosecuted under Israeli criminal law, and they rarely face accountability for attacks on Palestinians.
That two-tiered legal approach is a facet of what leading rights groups call a system of apartheid against Palestinians.
'Israeli settlers can come to you, shoot you in the head, and walk home to sleep,' said Ibrahim, Mohammed's father.
'The Palestinian, if he has his own plot of land in front of his house and the settlers come to burn his car and he pushes them away, he'll be charged.'
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee – a vocal supporter of illegal Israeli settlements – has described the killing of Musallet as a 'terrorist act' and called for Israel to 'aggressively investigate' the incident.
But there have been no arrests in the case 20 days after Musallet was beaten to death.