Palestinian-US teen held by Israel for nine months without charge due in court

A Palestinian American teenager is expected to appear in court in Israel this week after being detained without charge for nine months.

Mohammed Ibrahim, a 16-year-old from Florida, was arrested in February for allegedly throwing rocks at Jewish settlers while on holiday in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, which he denies.

Last month, 27 Democratic U.S. Senators and House members sent a letter to the U.S. State Department urging the Trump administration to do more to pressure Israel to release him.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement that Mohammed had committed “a serious crime that could lead to death” and that the court was proceeding within the framework of the necessary procedure.

The teenager’s family disagrees.

“You can ask anyone you know, he is a very sweet kid about sports, PlayStation and school,” his father Zahar Ibrahim told me before wiping a tear from his eye.

Mohammed was arrested by Israeli soldiers during a midnight raid on his family’s holiday home in the Palestinian village of al-Mazraa al-Sharqiya. He was 15 years old at the time.

Mr Ibrahim has not seen or spoken to Mohammed since February.

“He is an ordinary, fun boy who loves and respects everyone,” Mr. Ibrahim told me from his holiday home.

Ibrahim, who has not been able to talk to his son for nine months, heard the information about his detention only from court documents and said that his son had to confess.

Court documents say Mohammed woke up surrounded by Israeli soldiers. “They tied him up and blindfolded him, threw him on the floor of the Jeep and took him wherever they took him.”

Ibrahim, a father of four who runs an ice cream business in Florida, says his son only admitted to throwing rocks because soldiers were beating him.

The Israeli prime minister’s office did not respond to a request for comment on whether Mohammed was being held innocently or was allegedly beaten while in custody.

The U.S. embassy assigned a case worker who visited Muhammad in prison. Mr. İbrahim said that they told him that he had lost too much weight and that his condition was not good.

He has a message for another Florida resident, President Donald Trump.

“Do what you say from day one. You know America first. He’s an American, a citizen, and a child. So, as a president, his [Trump’s] “The mission is to protect Americans, and we don’t see that in Muhammad.”

“What’s lucky about an American passport?” Mr. Ibrahim says. “It doesn’t help. It’s one of those things where a foreign passport usually makes a difference, but the U.S. state department doesn’t actually do anything.”

A foreign ministry spokesman told the BBC they were “following Mr Ibrahim’s case closely and are working with the Israeli government on this case”.

US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee and embassy staff in Jerusalem were also “deeply involved”, the officials said, adding that they could not comment further “due to confidentiality and other issues”.

Because Mohammed was merely an American citizen on vacation in the West Bank when he was arrested, his case attracted the attention of U.S. lawmakers.

“This is a situation where the United States has influence. It just can’t use its influence, and that’s a gross dereliction of duty,” said Democratic U.S. Senator Chris van Hollen from his office in Washington, D.C.

Along with 26 other US lawmakers, he wrote a letter to the State Department and President Trump, demanding more be done to release Muhammad.

“If this were any other country, you’d see a much bigger effort. But for whatever reason, the Trump administration doesn’t want to force the Netanyahu government to do what it needs to do,” Van Hollen tells us.

“You have an American citizen who has been so mistreated, beaten, deprived of adequate food and nutrition, and I haven’t heard much from the U.S. government. I haven’t heard anything from the Secretary of State. I mean, Donald Trump himself. I mean, who says he’s an ‘America First’ president?”

Mohammed is being held without charge in Ofer prison in the West Bank. It also houses adult detainees, including those convicted of the most serious terrorist crimes, including murder.

Muhammad’s case attracted relative attention because he was an American citizen.

But there are approximately 350 Palestinian child security detainees in Israeli prisons, according to the Israel Prison Service.

Many were never charged, and human rights groups and the United Nations say some were subjected to abuse and torture.

“We must demand justice,” says Van Hollen.

Zahar looks exhausted and lonely as he leaves Ibrahim’s holiday home in al-Mazraa al-Sharqiya. The house is sparse. Just a set of weights to fill your time.

All he can do is wait.