ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (news agencies) — A Florida family already grieving the beating death of a 20-year-old relative is now pleading with U.S. leaders to help free the dead man’s cousin, a 16-year-old Palestinian-American from Florida who has been held in an Israeli prison for eight months.
Relatives, advocacy groups and some Congress members have been seeking the release of Mohammed Ibrahim since he was taken into custody when he was 15 by the Israeli military in February. Mohammed’s 20-year-old cousin, Sayfollah Musallet, was beaten to death by settlers in the West Bank village of Al Mazra as-Sharqiya earlier this year.
“This is really about two American sisters, one who just buried her son and her older sister going to give her support and also praying that her son doesn’t join the club of Americans killed overseas,” said Mohammed’s uncle, Zeyad Kadur. “They’re going through this together.”
“It’s basically made our family numb,” said Kamel Musallet, Sayfollah’s father and Mohammed’s uncle. “It’s been over three months and there’s not a day me and my wife don’t cry.”
Mohammed, of Palm Bay, Florida, was visiting family in the West Bank with his parents in February, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations. He was arrested on Feb. 15 at a family home in their village near Ramallah for allegedly throwing rocks at Israeli settlers in the West Bank, according to the group and several members of Congress.
Israel’s military has conducted regular arrest raids in the West Bank during the Israel-Hamas war, taking unprecedented numbers of Palestinians into prisons where inmates have reported poor treatment and conditions. Israel says the mass arrests are to root out militancy. But civilians and stone-throwers have been caught up in the raids — and Palestinian-Americans like Mohammed have been among them.
Israel treats stone-throwers as militants, while Palestinians widely see the practice as legitimate resistance to Israeli occupation.
The teen could get up to 20 years in prison for the alleged offense, for which his supporters say there is scant evidence.
In an affidavit provided by Kadur, Mohammed is documented as telling his Palestinian lawyer that he was assaulted by Israeli soldiers using rifle butts when he was arrested and only confessed to stone-throwing after he was threatened by interrogators with another beating.
“Initially, I refrained from confessing, but the interrogator threatened that if I did not comply, he would instruct the soldiers to beat me. Out of sheer fear, I ultimately confessed,” the affidavit quotes the teen as saying.
More than 100 U.S. faith-based, human rights and civil rights organizations have sent a joint letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio urging action to obtain Mohammed’s release.
In addition, in a letter sent Tuesday to Rubio and the U.S. ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, 15 U.S. senators and 12 U.S. representatives said they have “grave concern” over Mohammed’s situation. They urged Rubio and Huckabee to intervene by “engaging the Israeli government directly to secure the swift release of this American boy.”
Musallet said that Huckabee visited the family in July, following his son’s death, raising their hopes that Mohammed would be released.
“We said, ‘alhumdulillah,’ at least some good has come out of it and Mohammed was going to come out of prison,” Musallet said, using an Arabic phrase giving praise to God. “And 3 1/2 months later, still nothing.”
Mohammed’s family has been barred by the Israeli military from direct contact with their son since his arrest and has relied on sporadic reports about his condition at Israel’s Megiddo and Ofer prisons from the U.S. Embassy in Israel, his advocates say.
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