In the early hours of the morning on 16 February, US citizen Zaher Ibrahim, his wife and two of his children were asleep in their home in the occupied West Bank. They woke to loud banging and shouting outside. When Ibrahim opened the door, he found around 25 to 30 Israeli police officers outside.

They came in, handcuffed and blindfolded his 16-year-old son Mohammed, and took him to Moscovia detention centre in Jerusalem. After a few weeks, in mid-March, he was taken to Megiddo prison, and is now at the notorious Ofer prison, where he was moved to in mid-August. Mohammad was in Palestine on holiday when he was detained. Ibrahim takes his children back regularly, sometimes twice a year, so that they can maintain a connection with their culture and ancestral lands.

Ibrahim said that the US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, came to visit him at his home in the occupied West Bank, after Israeli settlers killed Mohammed’s cousin Sayfollah Musallet in July. “He [Mike] came and sat for an hour. And you know, we got a lot of words that he’s gonna do what he can do. Nothing was done," Ibrahim told Middle East Eye from Silwad, near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.

  • ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.world
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    16 hours ago

    He’s the wrong kind of American. The ‘America First’ manta only applies to straight, white, protestant Christian conservative Americans. Anyone outside of that narrow window is the enemy to those pushing this dogma.

  • quick_snail@feddit.nl
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    16 hours ago

    US embassy staff told Ibrahim that Mohammed had lost at least 25 pounds. He weighed around 100 pounds at the time he was detained.

    Yeah, they’re trying to starve him to death.

  • quick_snail@feddit.nl
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    16 hours ago

    Miranda Cleland, advocacy officer for NGO Defence for Children International, said that Israeli forces had intensified their arrest operations throughout the occupied West Bank, placing more and more children in military detention, including many without charge or trial after 7 October.

    Israel takes yet another hostage. Release the hostages!

  • whatalute@lemmy.world
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    20 hours ago

    Even working under the veeeery generous assumption that he DID do what Israeli police are claiming—throwing rocks— 6 months in jail in horrible conditions and no definitive end date in sight is absolutely ridiculous.

  • doingthestuff@lemy.lol
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    19 hours ago

    There are few things more American than Americans being incarcerated. It doesn’t matter where. Can’t stop all this freedom!