On Thursday, 16-year-old Mohammed Zaher Ibrahim was released from Israel's Ofer prison and reunited with his family. The Palestinian-American boy from Florida was 15 years old when Israeli soldiers abducted him from his home in the West Bank village of Al-Mazra'a Al-Sharqia on February 16.
His first stop after prison was the hospital. Before his release, both his lawyer and US embassy officials sounded the alarm about his rapidly deteriorating health: Mohammed lost a quarter of his body weight, developed scabies and was beaten by prison guards. When he emerged from an Israeli prison last week, gaunt and pale, the teenager looked little like photos which was distributed as part of the campaign for his release.
Despite Israeli attempts to double the length of Muhammad's detention, including in a statement directly from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, office — the media storm fueled by family members and their supporters ultimately won. Muhammad's uncle enrolled a tenacious commitment to a grassroots movement that mobilized more than 100 organizations, Florida community members and members of Congress to fight for his nephew's freedom. He also sought to draw attention to the “hundreds of children” who are still “unfairly imprisoned in Israeli prison and subjected to abuse and torture by Israel.”
As of October 7, 2023, the Israel Prison Service has transformed its facilities into a “network of prisons.” torture campsAccording to one Israeli monitoring group. soared to the skiesand prisoners released under ceasefire agreements have witnessed regular attacks, medical neglectfood deprivation and rape. These statements were further corroborated by prison guards and senior Israeli officials. officials.
More than 300 Palestinian child prisoners are being tried in the world's only military court, which systematically persecutes minorsface these brutal conditions. Mohammed witnessed his cellmate, Waleed Khalid Abdullah Ahmad, 17, lose consciousness and die from malnutrition. Cases like these underscore how the consequences of the US-backed war against the Palestinians have spread far beyond the Gaza Strip.
For decades, the Israeli government has pumped money and weapons into illegal settlements in the West Bank. Killings of Palestinians have increased over the past two years. took off, arson villages were regularly set on fire, local And foreign journalists face increased threats from settler mobs, and American solidarity activists trying to protect Palestinian villagers have been shot And killed Israeli soldiers.
During his nine and a half months in detention, Mohammed's family were denied the right to visit him. Therefore, the joy of his freedom was overshadowed by grief: only after his release were his family members able to deliver news that Mohammed's cousin, Florida native Saifollah Musallet, 20, was beaten to death by a crowd of Israeli settlers in July. He was fifth American killed in West Bank since October 7, 2023.
The US State Department has been slow to prosecute crimes against its citizens, leaving investigations to the Israeli military as a matter of course. This practice of ignoring Israeli violence against Americans dates back to long before the current Trump administration. The families of activist Rachel Corrie and journalist Shirin Abu Akle, killed by Israeli forces in 2003 And 2022accordingly, justice remains to be seen.
The State Department's inaction on behalf of Americans abroad can only be fully understood in light of the Department of Homeland Security's hostility toward the domestic anti-war movement for Palestinian freedom.
A month after Mohammed's arrest, half a world away from al-Mazra'a al-Sharqiyah, a Palestinian woman in New Jersey was detained March 13 by Immigration and Customs Enforcement when applying for a green card through his mother, a U.S. citizen. Lekaa Kordia, 32, was transported without trial from Newark to crowded Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, where she is still being held.
Like other attempts by politically motivated “ideological deportationsAt the time of her arrest, Cordia had come to the attention of ICE because of her participation in a protest against Israel's war in the Gaza Strip, she said. affidavitShe lost “nearly 175 family members—nearly an entire generation—to the ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip.” Although judges twice ordered her to be released on bail, ICE resorted to a rarely used “administrative stay” to keep her captive.
Although they face vastly different legal regimes, the cases of Kordia and Mohammed are stark examples of the consequences that await Palestinians who dare to stand up to the massacre of their people – or who simply choose to maintain ties to their homeland despite Israel's military occupation.
By preventing any international intervention in the crimes against humanity in Gaza, the US and Israel have undermined the institutions tasked with upholding humanitarian law in favor of a world order defined by brute force. Unwavering military and diplomatic Support for its ally has escalated into uncontrolled rampage across the region, with Israel conducting military operations in Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Iran, Tunisia and Qatar.
But Mohammed's case demonstrates the role that ordinary people – family members and journalists, community organizers and retirees – can play in denying this state of affairs, refusing to allow Palestinians like Kordia and Mohammed to disappear in silence. Relentless pressure campaigns can also have life-changing consequences that extend beyond individual cases: Mohammed's lawyer was able to use pressure on Israel to secure release agreements three more Palestinian children who were detained and charged along with Mohammed.
The last two years have witnessed tidal shift in American public perception of the Palestinian cause. On both sides of the party, elected representatives are facing increased scrutiny for their ties to pro-Israel lobbying groups. Social movements are now better able to put pressure on government officials, increasing the political and reputational costs of complicity in crimes against humanity.
Challenging the impunity with which Israel imprisoned a Palestinian-American teenager necessarily means challenging the broader system of unconditional US support for Israel. It also means opposing similar injustices within our own borders, e.g. criminalization solidarity with Palestine or denial of due process tens of thousands migrants in detention centers like the one Cordia holds.
In both the US and Israel, incarceration is used to tear people away from their communities, leaving them feeling alone, isolated and vulnerable to forces far beyond their control. But organized mass movements have the power to challenge this deadly bureaucracy, whether at home or abroad. We can fight for and win the freedom of people like Muhammad and Qordia.
Nasrin Abd Elal is a Palestinian organizer based in New York.
