CHICAGO: The family of Palestinian-American Amer Rabee, 14, who was killed on April 6 by Israeli soldiers while picking almonds near his home in the West Bank town of Turmus Ayyah, is seeking justice and a response from the US government, his uncle Rami Jbara said.
The family has not heard “a single word of remorse or concern” from the US government, Jbara, who lives in the state of New Jersey, told Arab News.
He said Rabee was shot dead while with two other Palestinian-American boys, Ayoub Assad and Abdul Rahman Shehadeh.
“The US will move its army for any American citizen in the whole world except in Israel,” he added. “These kids … were unarmed. They had no weapons on them. They’re 13 and 14 years old.”
Jbara said his nephew was shot “all over — his head, his shoulders, his stomach, his legs,” adding that Rabee was in the West Bank studying at the local high school, living with his parents who had moved back there from New Jersey.
Jbara said Rabee’s father protested to the US Embassy in Jerusalem, adding that this was not the first incident with soldiers or settlers from the settlement of Shiloh just north of Turmus Ayyah.
Settlers have been harassing the town’s residents for years, but the harassment has increased in the past year with “no response” from Israel’s government, police or military, he added.
Democratic Sen. Cory Booker, representing New Jersey, said Rabee’s death “is another devastating reminder of the horrific human cost of ongoing conflict and tensions in the region.
“There must be a full and transparent accounting of the circumstances around his death and the actions of Israeli security forces.”
Booker added: “I call on the Trump administration to reinstate sanctions on perpetrators of such violence, which directly threatens the objectives of protecting innocent Israeli and Palestinian civilians and preventing the war in Gaza and tensions in the West Bank from escalating into a wider regional conflict.”
Palestinians at the Palestinian American Community Center in the city of Clifton, New Jersey, told Arab News that they are meeting to determine how to raise the issue of Rabee’s killing with the US government and to raise awareness of Israeli violence.
