'Where's your America First?': US teenager stuck in Israeli jail for six months
'Where's your America First?': US teenager stuck in Israeli jail for six months
In the early hours of the morning on 16 February, US citizen Zaher Ibrahim, his wife and two of his children were asleep in their home in the occupied West Bank.
They woke to loud banging and shouting outside. When Ibrahim opened the door, he found around 25 to 30 Israeli police officers outside.
They came in, handcuffed and blindfolded his 16-year-old son Mohammed, and took him to Moscovia detention centre in Jerusalem. After a few weeks, in mid-March, he was taken to Megiddo prison, and is now at the notorious Ofer prison, where he was moved to in mid-August.
Mohammad was in Palestine on holiday when he was detained. Ibrahim takes his children back regularly, sometimes twice a year, so that they can maintain a connection with their culture and ancestral lands.
Ibrahim has not physically seen or heard his son Mohammed’s voice since, except on a television screen in court.
Mohammed’s alleged crime is throwing rocks, something that the teenager has denied. Ibrahim says that in the court in Ofer he learned that some kids had thrown rocks at an Israeli car a few days before Mohammed was detained.
On the evening Mohammed was taken into detention, he had been with three friends who were aimlessly throwing rocks, and Mohammed’s lawyer believes this is why he was picked up.
Subsequently, the driver whose car was hit by a rock attended a hearing to identify the perpetrators but did not recognise Mohammed or his three friends, Ibrahim learned in court on Wednesday this week.
'Where's your America First?'
Ibrahim said that the US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, came to visit him at his home in the occupied West Bank, after Israeli settlers killed Mohammed’s cousin Sayfollah Musallet in July.
“He [Mike] came and sat for an hour. And you know, we got a lot of words that he’s gonna do what he can do. Nothing was done," Ibrahim told Middle East Eye from Silwad, near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.
Ibrahim has also been in touch with both his representatives – Republican Mike Haridopolos and Democrat Kathy Castor - back home in Melbourne, Florida where they maintain their family home. He said that Haridopolos had not been responsive in a while.
Ibrahim feels abandoned by the US government. He said America’s policy of ‘America First’ may apply in other countries, but it did not seem to apply in Israel.
'I keep everything inside me. It's very difficult. When you go to eat, you wonder if your son is even getting anything to eat’
- Zaher Ibrahim, father of detained US teenager
“You have a little kid in jail. Where’s your America First?”
The State Department, Castor and Haridopolos did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.
Ibrahim and the rest of his family have been beside themselves with grief, grasping onto any news they can learn about their son’s well-being from their lawyer, US embassy staff and other detainees who have been released from the same detention centre.
US embassy staff told Ibrahim that Mohammed had lost at least 25 pounds. He weighed around 100 pounds at the time he was detained.
He has heard reports that Mohammed gets one meal a day, sleeps on the floor and has a one-minute shower every few days. He also learned his son got scabies while in detention and has hurt his back sleeping on the floor.
“I keep everything inside me. It’s very difficult. When you go to eat, you wonder if your son is even getting anything to eat. When you go to sleep and you put your head on a pillow, you wonder if your son even has a pillow or a bed. You shower, and it’s the same thing.”
Ibrahim said two of his daughters, based in California, call every day to check for any news.
“Sometimes I didn’t tell them upsetting things. I told them he was eating well, so it didn’t affect their well-being”.
Ibrahim said that his other son, who lives in Florida, had come in July and had wanted to go to court, and had gone back home and told the rest of the family the full extent of what Mohammed was going through, which broke them.
'Violation of international law'
Detention facilities for Palestinian detainees are notoriously bad, and human rights groups say conditions have deteriorated since 7 October.
Miranda Cleland, advocacy officer for NGO Defence for Children International, said that Israeli forces had intensified their arrest operations throughout the occupied West Bank, placing more and more children in military detention, including many without charge or trial after 7 October.
Cleland says that their lawyers are regularly blocked from visiting Palestinian child detainees, and if they are allowed into prisons, at times, they are only given a few minutes to speak to them.
“Children we have interviewed after their release have reported brutal torture, frequent beatings, rotten food, and complete isolation from the outside world. More and more, Israeli authorities are sealing off detainees," Cleland said.
“Mohammad Ibrahim’s case has proven that not even a US passport can protect a Palestinian child in Israeli prisons.”
She said the Israel Prison Service had not yet released the monthly headcounts from the second quarter of 2025, and the latest data on the number of detainees they had was from March.
“Israeli forces want to torture and imprison Palestinian children in the dark, without witnesses, in complete violation of international law,” she added.
“Israel’s military detention system is illegitimate, does not hold up to international legal standards for due process, and every child detainee must be released urgently.”
Mohammed’s lawyer said extra pressure from the US embassy could help secure Mohammed’s release during his upcoming court date on Sunday. He could possibly be released on the condition that he not return to the occupied West Bank for at least a year.
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