His first stop after prison was the hospital. Before his release, both his lawyer and US embassy officials raised the alarm about his rapidly deteriorating medical condition: Mohammed had lost a quarter of his body weight, contracted scabies and was beaten by prison guards. When he emerged from Israeli custody last week, thin and pale, the teenager bore little resemblance to the photos which had been distributed to campaign for his release.
Despite Israeli attempts to double down on Mohammed’s detention – including in a statement directly from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu office – the media firestorm stoked by family members and their supporters ultimately won. Mohammed’s uncle credited the dogged efforts of a grassroots movement that mobilized more than a hundred organizations, Florida community members, and members of Congress to fight for his cousin’s freedom. He also made sure to draw attention to the “hundreds of children” who remain “wrongfully imprisoned in an Israeli prison, where they are subjected to Israel’s abuse and torture.”
Since October 7, 2023, the Israel Prison Service has transformed its facilities into a “network of torture campsan Israeli watchdog group said. Palestinian deaths in prison have shot upand prisoners released under a ceasefire agreement have testified to routine medical attacks neglectlack of food and rape. These testimonies have been further confirmed by prison guards and high-ranking Israelis civil servants.
More than 300 Palestinian child prisoners, subjected to the world’s only military court that systematically prosecutes minorsconfronted with these cruel conditions. Mohammed witnessed his fellow cellmate, Walid Khalid Abdullah Ahmad, 17, collapse and die due to malnutrition. Such cases highlight how the consequences of the US-backed war against the Palestinians have spread far beyond the borders of the Gaza Strip.
For decades, the Israeli government has pumped money and weapons into illegal settlements in the West Bank. There have been killings of Palestinians in the past two years rose, arsons regularly setting villages on fire, local And foreign journalists face increased threats from settler gangs and American solidarity activists trying to protect Palestinian villagers shot And killed by Israeli soldiers.
During his nine and a half month detention, Mohammed’s family was denied the right to visit him. The joy about his freedom was therefore tempered by sadness: only after his release were his relatives able to deliver him news that Mohammed’s cousin, Florida native Sayfollah Musallet, 20, had been beaten to death by a gang of Israeli settlers in July. He was the fifth American killed in West Bank since October 7, 2023.
The US State Department has dragged its feet in pursuing accountability for crimes against its citizens, naturally deferring the investigation to the Israeli military. This practice of ignoring Israeli violence against Americans long predates the current Trump administration. The families of activist Rachel Corrie and journalist Shireen Abu Akleh have been murdered by Israeli forces 2003 And 2022respectively – have yet to see justice.
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, and half a world away from Al-Mazraa Ash-Sharquia, a Palestinian woman in New Jersey was locked up March 13 by Immigration and Customs Enforcement while applying for a green card through her mother, a U.S. citizen. Leqaa Kordia, 32, was summarily extradited from Newark to the overcrowded Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, where she remains held.
Similar to other attempts at politically motivated “ideological deportationsKordia was put on ICE’s radar for her participation in a protest against Israel’s war on Gaza. By the time she was arrested, she said declarationshe had lost “nearly 175 family members – almost an entire generation – to the ongoing genocide in Gaza.” Although judges have twice ordered her release on bail, ICE has relied on rarely used “administrative quarters” to keep her in custody.
Although they face vastly different legal regimes, the cases of Kordia and Mohammed are both acute examples of the consequences imposed on Palestinians who dare to oppose the slaughter of their people – or who simply choose to maintain a bond with their homeland in the face of Israel’s military occupation.
By preventing any international intervention in the crimes against humanity in Gaza, the US and Israel have undermined the institutions charged with upholding humanitarian law in favor of a world order defined by brute force. The steadfast US military and… diplomatic Its ally’s support has spiraled into an uncontrolled rampage across the region, with Israel conducting military operations in Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Iran, Tunisia and Qatar.
But Mohammed’s case shows the role that ordinary people – family members and journalists, community organizers and retirees – can play in rejecting this state of affairs, by refusing to let Palestinians like Kordia and Mohammed disappear into silence. Relentless pressure campaigns can also have life-changing consequences beyond individual cases: Mohammed’s lawyer was able to pressure Israel to secure release deals for three others Palestinian children who were detained and charged together with Mohammed.
The past two years have witnessed one tidal shift in Americans’ public perception of the Palestinian cause. Elected representatives on both sides of the aisle are coming under increased scrutiny for their ties to pro-Israel lobby groups. Social movements are now better positioned to pressure government officials by 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 American support for Israel. It also means that we must stand up against similar injustices within our own borders, such as the criminalization of solidarity with Palestine or the denial of a fair trial tens of thousands of migrants in detention centers such as Kordia’s.
In both the US and Israel, prisoners are used to separate individuals from their communities, leaving them feeling lonely, isolated and vulnerable to forces far beyond their control. But organized grassroots movements have the power to challenge these deadly bureaucracies, both at home and abroad. We can fight for – and win – the freedom of people like Mohammed and Kordia.
Nasreen Abd Elal is a Palestinian organizer based in New York City.
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