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A coalition of over 100 U.S. groups is demanding that Israeli officials release 16-year-old Palestinian American Mohammed Zaher Ibrahim from imprisonment, warning that authorities are starving him and denying him medical care as they’ve barred the child from seeing his family for over six months.
The groups called on Secretary of State Marco Rubio to act to end Mohammed’s “unjust” imprisonment in Israel’s Ofer prison, a facility notorious for its abuses against Palestinians, including children.
“Mohammed’s health is dire and requires your immediate action to ensure Mohammed is free, safe, and with his parents — his life is on the line. According to his attorneys, Mohammed is suffering from scabies and has not received any medication; he has also lost over 30 pounds due to Israel denying him food and medical treatment,” the groups warned Rubio in a letter sent Tuesday.
“We are demanding that the U.S. Department of State work to secure the immediate release of Mohammed Ibrahim from Israeli prison and protect U.S. citizens, particularly children,” the letter went on. “As a coalition of faith-based, human rights, and civil rights organizations, we stress the urgency of Mohammed’s health and that a child’s life is on the line.”
The letter was signed by 102 advocacy, civil rights, and faith based organizations, including the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Democratic Socialists of America, and Jewish Voice for Peace. It was also signed by the family of Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, the young American activist shot in the head and killed by Israeli forces last year.
Mohammed has been imprisoned since February, when Israeli authorities barged into his family’s home in the occupied West Bank in the middle of the night. They tied his hands behind his back, blindfolded him, and are imprisoning him without trial.
Israeli authorities have barred Mohammed from seeing or even having a phone call with his family. He is being held over charges of throwing rocks, which his family denies.
Mohammed, who turned 16 in prison, is the cousin of Palestinian American Sayfollah Musallet, who was beaten to death by Israeli settlers in the West Bank last month. The Trump administration has not taken action on either Musallet’s death or Mohammed’s imprisonment.
Mohammed’s family has pleaded for his release.
“At four in the morning, 25 soldiers — ski masks, M-16s, you know, Jeeps, military vehicles — they came into the house. They took him out of his bedroom, blindfolded him, handcuffed him,” said Mohammed’s uncle, Siad Khader, in a press conference held by CAIR-Florida on Tuesday. “That was six months and 10 days ago. That was the last time anybody has seen him that knows him.”
“That 16-year-old is supposed to be down the street right now, getting his driver’s license. Summer job. With his family,” said Khader. “We just buried his first cousin. We want him home.”
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