Israeli troopers arrested Mohammed Ibrahim in February for allegedly throwing stones within the Israeli-occupied West Financial institution. An Israeli navy court docket is weighing the destiny of the Florida teenager.
Muna Ibrahim
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Muna Ibrahim
AL-MAZRAA A-SHARQIYA, Israeli-occupied West Financial institution — Final February, Mohammed Ibrahim — then 15 — was awoken and pulled from his mattress by Israeli troopers, who stated he’d been noticed throwing stones within the occupied West Financial institution.
He is Palestinian-American, and his household splits their time between the Tampa space and a sprawling stone home surrounded by olive timber on this West Financial institution village.
“Round 3:30 within the morning, they blindfolded him, handcuffed him — they simply took him,” his mom, Muna Ibrahim, 46, recollects. “Since that day I did not see my son. I did not hear his voice.”
Mohammed, a U.S. citizen, has been in Israeli jail since then, with out household visits or telephone calls. In March, he turned 16 behind bars, and faces as much as 20 years in jail if convicted.
He is considered one of greater than 9,000 Palestinians, together with lots of of kids, detained within the West Financial institution for the reason that Hamas-led assaults of Oct. 7, 2023, and the Gaza warfare that adopted, in accordance with official Palestinian figures.
On Sunday, the Florida teen has a listening to in an Israeli navy court docket. It is his tenth court docket appointment, in accordance with his father, Zaher Ibrahim, who plans to attend. The entire earlier hearings have adjourned with no plea discount or trial date.
“Their hearings right here are usually not like America. You wait 9 hours, 8 hours, 7 hours — there is no time when his court docket begins,” the daddy, 50, says. “You stroll in and so they simply say, ‘Court docket delayed till subsequent month.’ That is the way it’s been for 9 months nearly.”
Israel has allowed U.S. Embassy officers to go to Mohammed in jail. Zaher Ibrahim says these officers, in addition to freed prisoners, advised him his son is affected by scabies — a rash attributable to a pores and skin parasite — that started on one foot and has unfold throughout his physique, and that he is misplaced almost a 3rd of his physique weight.
Members of the U.S. Congress say he may have “indicators of torture.”
Why stone-throwing carries an extended jail sentence underneath Israeli navy legislation
Fairly than the common Israeli penal code, Mohammed’s case falls underneath particular West Financial institution safety provisions imposed after the Hamas-led assaults of Oct. 7, 2023. These provisions classify stone-throwing as a severe offense. It was widespread in two Palestinian intifadas. Altogether greater than 1,000 Israelis had been killed in these uprisings, together with many occasions that variety of Palestinians.
Court docket paperwork reviewed by NPR present Mohammed is charged with two counts of stone-throwing. The legislation says it is a felony offense to “throw an object, together with a stone, or act in live performance to take action.” Three different Palestinian youths had been arrested on the identical day as Mohammed, in reference to the identical alleged incident.
The legislation says if the goal of stone-throwing is an individual or property, the penalty is 10 years in jail. For a transferring car, it is 20 years. The latter is what Mohammed is charged with.
Underneath interrogation, Mohammed admitted to throwing a stone close to a highway, however says he did not hit something, and did not attempt to. That is in accordance with court docket paperwork and a video of the interrogation, which a lawyer shared along with his father.
In an announcement to NPR, the Israeli navy refused to touch upon the specifics of Mohammed’s case, however stated navy juvenile courts within the West Financial institution are stored secret to “defend the privateness of minors.”
One of many rationales for such lengthy jail sentences is to incentivize plea bargains, and the overwhelming majority of minors charged in such instances by no means serve 20 years, says Lea Tsemel, a famend Israeli lawyer who has represented lots of of Palestinians charged in Israeli courts.
Tsemel shouldn’t be representing Mohammed. However she says the Kafkaesque expertise his father describes in navy courts, and the accounts of illness and malnutrition conveyed by U.S. consular officers, are typical in such instances.
“Even a boy — even a youthful boy than this one — is taken into account a safety prisoner [under special West Bank security provisions], and will probably be restricted and denied of any proper, together with meals, together with household visits,” Tsemel says. “Hardly they will see a lawyer right here and there.”
The Ibrahim household has been in a position to rent a lawyer for Mohammed, however jail visits are rare, his father says.
The Israeli navy disputes that. “Defendants are represented by a lawyer of their alternative, and all proof is made obtainable to the protection. The navy courts strictly uphold due course of and the rights of the defendants all through the proceedings,” it stated in an announcement to NPR.
What the U.S. authorities is doing
Final month, 27 members of Congress signed a letter to the U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who’s from Florida, just like the Ibrahim household. The lawmakers referred to as on the U.S. authorities to have interaction with Israel to safe Mohammed’s “swift launch,” citing his “alarming weight reduction, deteriorating well being, and indicators of torture.”
On considered one of Rubio’s latest journeys to Israel, he appointed a U.S. diplomat to liaise with the Ibrahim household, and Zaher Ibrahim says he is been in contact typically with that particular person.
“They’d a pair sit-downs with the Israeli authorities. They stated the assembly was very optimistic, however there’s been no follow-up after that,” Zaher Ibrahim says.
The U.S. State Division tells NPR it is “monitoring Mr. Ibrahim’s case carefully and dealing with the federal government of Israel.” Huckabee and embassy employees are “deeply concerned,” it stated in an e mail.
Every time Mohammed will get out, his household has somber information to ship
Zaher Ibrahim says he hopes his son will probably be launched at Sunday’s listening to, or be capable of enter a plea discount, or at the very least get a trial date.
His spouse Muna has positioned a field of sweets on Mohammed’s mattress, the place he hasn’t slept in almost 9 months — as a welcome house reward.
“Could no mom undergo what I went by,” she says. “We anticipated he’ll come out inside one week, as a result of he is a U.S. citizen, and we simply preserve ready.”
And she or he’s fighting the right way to inform him about what’s occurred, whereas he is been in jail: In July, Mohammed’s 20-year-old cousin, Sayfollah Musallet, a fellow U.S. citizen, was killed within the West Financial institution. He was overwhelmed to demise by Israeli settlers. The 2 boys had been shut, Muna Ibrahim says.
Musallet was the fifth American killed within the West Financial institution since Oct. 7, 2023. No trial has been set in his homicide case, both.
NPR producer Nuha Musleh contributed to this story from the West Financial institution. NPR producers Itay Stern and Alon Avital contributed from Tel Aviv.
