Israeli Forces Kill Palestinian American Teen In Occupied West Bank
A group of children were protesting an Israeli raid at the village of Turmus Ayya when Israeli soldiers opened fire on them, hitting three teenage boys who are U.S. citizens, according to local media and the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
Two 15-year-old Palestinian American boys, Ayoub Jabara and Abdulrahman Shihada, were rushed to a hospital to get treatment for their wounds, according to the village's mayor Adeeb Lafi. But Israeli soldiers detained the third, 14-year-old Amer Mohammad Saada Rabee, before paramedics could get him help.
Israeli troops shot Rabee 11 times, according to the Palestinian American Community Center (PACC). The New Jersey teen was pronounced dead in custody.
Video on the ground shows Rabee's mother kissing her son's lifeless body during his funeral in Ramallah on Monday. PACC, based in New Jersey, held a prayer service in honor of the boy, whose death the group said was 'entirely preventable and horrifically unjust.'
'Amer was killed for speaking out at a time when the U.S. and Israel are doing everything they can to crush dissent, but we will not be silenced,' Illinois state Rep. Abdelnasser Rashid, a fellow Palestinian American whose family is also from Turmus Ayya, told HuffPost on Tuesday. The Democrat said he's spoken to some of Rabee's relatives in Chicago, who are 'understandably heartbroken.'
The Israel Defense Force has confirmed the attack, justifying the shooting by saying the teens ― only referred to as 'terrorists' ― were 'endangering civilians' by throwing rocks at the highway.
'By labeling children who throw stones as 'terrorists,' Israel entrenches a fabricated system above international law, violating its fundamental rules and principles, fabricating pretexts for killing, and entrenching its policy of institutionalised, systematic and unlawful violence and persecution against Palestinians,' Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor posted on X.
'The killing of children is not self-defense. Stone-throwing is not terrorism,' the Geneva-based rights group continued. 'What Israel is committing is fully-fledged apartheid violence and relentless settler-colonial violence – ongoing, and met with impunity.'
Rabee is the latest American to be killed by Israeli forces, an all-too-frequent occurrence that almost never resulted in consequences under the Biden administration.
An Israeli airstrike killed Michigan-based Dr. Kamel Ahmad Jawad in October while he was helping injured civilians in Lebanon.
An Israeli sniper killed Turkish American student Ayşenur Eygi in September for protesting the occupation in the West Bank.
An off-duty Israeli soldier killed Palestinian American teen Tawfiq Abdel Jabbar in January while he was visiting family in the West Bank.
Israeli soldiers beat and detained Palestinian American Omar Assad while he was driving home in the West Bank in January 2022, eventually dying of a heart attack after they left the elderly man in the cold still handcuffed.
An Israeli sniper killed high-profile Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in May 2022, while she was covering Israeli raids on the West Bank city of Jenin.
An Israeli soldier ran a military bulldozer over American activist Rachel Corrie in March 2003, killing her while she was protesting the occupation in Gaza.
Despite repeated calls for accountability from both Israel and the U.S., the Justice Department has never pursued prosecution in these cases. The White House, regardless of who occupies it, has nearly always deferred to the Israeli military's self-investigations, which when announced have rarely led to consequences.
The IDF did not answer HuffPost's repeated questions as to whether there would be an independent investigation in Rabee's death, nor if there were any consequences that came out of the investigation into Eygi's death.
'We know the frustration of hearing Israel scrambling to falsely justify the targeting and killing of a loved one, as if anything justifies the killing of this child,' Eygi's family said in a statement on Monday. 'We remember our rage seeing the unwillingness of our government to seek justice for the killing of one of its own citizens, despite our repeated calls for accountability.'
'If Ayşenur's killing had been investigated and those responsible had been held accountable, maybe [Amer] would be alive today,' the family continued. 'The impunity afforded to Israel by the United States, as well as its allowance on billions of dollars in weapons sales to Israel, allows Israel to continue its killing of American citizens.'
The Trump administration is now facing calls to reinstate sanctions on violent settlers and to investigate Rabee's killing, including by both New Jerseysenators and the Council on American-Islamic Relations. On Tuesday, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce would not answer reporters' questions about a possible investigation, only sending condolences to the teenagers' families.
'We are not calling for special treatment – only equal protection under the law for all Americans, regardless of their ethnic or religious identity,' CAIR said in a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi. 'When Americans are murdered abroad, especially by actors from a U.S.-funded foreign military like Israel, our government has an obligation to respond with the full force of U.S. law. Failure to do so perpetuates injustice and undermines the principle that every American life matters.'
The Sunday shooting is also part of a spike in violence against Palestinians by Israeli soldiers and settlers in the occupied West Bank, including a larger offensive in the northern region that has killed at least 99 people and displaced tens of thousands, according to the United Nations. While Palestinians in the West Bank continue to face such threats, Israeli forces have kept up their 18-month destruction of Gaza, where UN officials say children have bore the brunt of the violence and displacement.
'We know that [Amer's] killing, like Ayşenur's, has only garnered attention in America because he was a US citizen, and we also know there are thousands of other [Amer's] and Ayşenur's killed by Israel whose stories have not been told, simply because of where they were born,' Eygi's family said. 'Israel must not only be held accountable for the killing of [Amer] and Ayşenur, but also for its continued genocide of the Palestinian people.'
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