An Israeli military court hears a case against an American teenager: NPR

Al Mazraa Al Sharqiya, Israeli-Occupied West Bank – Last February, Muhammad Ibrahim – then 15 years old – woke up and was pulled from his bed by Israeli soldiers, saying he had been spotted throwing stones in the occupied West Bank.

He’s a Palestinian-American, and his family divides their time between the Tampa area and a sprawling stone house surrounded by olive trees in this West Bank village.

His mother, Mona Ibrahim, 46, recalled: “At about 3:30 in the morning, they blindfolded him and handcuffed him, and then they just took him away.” “Since that day I have not seen my son, nor heard his voice.”

Muhammad, an American citizen, has been in Israeli prisons since then, without family visits or phone calls. In March, he turned 16 behind bars, and faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

He is one of more than 9,000 Palestinians, including hundreds of children, detained in the West Bank since the Hamas-led attacks on October 7, 2023, and the ensuing Gaza war, according to official Palestinian figures.

On Sunday, the Florida teen will have a hearing in an Israeli military court. This is his tenth appointment in court, according to his father, Zaher Ibrahim, who plans to attend. All previous hearings have been postponed without a plea deal or trial date.

“Hearings here are not like America,” says the 50-year-old father. “You wait 9 hours, 8 hours, 7 hours – there is no time for his court to start.” “You walk in and they just say, ‘Court is delayed until next month.’ “That’s how it was for about 9 months.”

Israel allowed US embassy officials to visit Muhammad in prison. Zaher Ibrahim says those officials, as well as released prisoners, told him that his son suffered from scabies — a rash caused by a skin parasite — that started on one foot and spread throughout his body, and that he had lost nearly a third of his body weight.

Members of the US Congress He says He may also have “signs of torture.”

Why does throwing stones carry a long prison sentence under Israeli military law?

Instead of the regular Israeli penal code, Mohammed’s case falls under the West Bank security provisions imposed after the Hamas-led attacks on October 7, 2023. These provisions classify stone-throwing as a serious crime. It spread in Palestine Uprisings. In total, more than 1,000 Israelis were killed in those uprisings, in addition to many times that number of Palestinians.

Court documents reviewed by NPR show that Muhammad is charged with two counts of stone-throwing. The law says that “throwing anything, including a stone, or acting in concert to do so” is a criminal offence. Three other Palestinian youths were arrested on the same day as Muhammad, in connection with the same alleged incident.

The law stipulates that if the target of the attack is a person or property, the penalty is 10 years in prison. For a moving vehicle, it’s 20 years. The latter is what Muhammad was accused of.

During his interrogation, Muhammad admitted to throwing a stone near the road, but said that he did not hit anything, nor did he attempt to do so. This is according to court documents and an interrogation video that a lawyer shared with his father.

In a statement to NPR, the Israeli military declined to comment on the details of Muhammad’s case, but said that military juvenile courts in the West Bank remain secret “to protect the privacy of minors.”

One rationale for such long prison sentences is to incentivize plea deals, and the vast majority of minors accused in such cases never serve 20 years, Lea says. Tsemel, a famous Israeli lawyer who represented hundreds of accused Palestinians before Israeli courts.

Tsemel does not represent Muhammad. But she says the Kafkaesque experience described by his father in military courts, and the accounts of illness and malnutrition relayed by American consular officials, are typical of such cases.

“Even a boy – even a boy younger than this – is considered a security prisoner [under special West Bank security provisions]“They will be restricted and deprived of any right, including food, including family visits,” says Tsemel. “They can barely see a lawyer here and there.”

Ibrahim’s family was able to hire a lawyer for Mohamed, but prison visits are rare, his father says.

The Israeli army doubts this. “Defendants are represented by counsel of their choice, and all evidence is made available to the defense. Military courts strictly adhere to due process and the rights of defendants throughout the proceedings,” she said in a statement to NPR.

What is the US government doing?

Last month, 27 members of Congress I signed a letter The US Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is from Florida, like the Ibrahim family. The lawmakers called on the US government to cooperate with Israel to ensure Mohammed’s “rapid release,” citing his “alarming weight loss, deteriorating health, and signs of torture.”

On one of Rubio’s recent trips to Israel, he appointed an American diplomat to contact Ibrahim’s family, and Zahir Ibrahim says he was in frequent contact with this person.

“They had two meetings with the Israeli government,” says Zaher Ibrahim. “They said the meeting was very positive, but there was no follow-up after that.”

The US State Department told NPR that it is “closely following Mr. Ibrahim’s case and is working with the Israeli government.” Huckabee and embassy staff are “deeply involved,” she said in an email.

When Mohamed gets out, his family has sad news to deliver

Zaher Ibrahim says he hopes his son will be released at Sunday’s hearing, or that he will be able to enter into a plea deal, or at least get a trial date.

His wife, Mona, placed a box of chocolates on Mohammed’s bed, where he had not slept in nearly nine months – as a welcome home gift.

“No mother should have to go through what I went through,” she says. “We expected him to be out within one week, because he is an American citizen, and we are still waiting.”

She struggles with how to tell him what happened while he was in prison: In July, Mohammed’s 20-year-old cousin, Seif Allah Musalat, an American citizen, was killed in the West Bank. He was beaten to death by Israeli settlers. Mona Ibrahim says that the two boys were close to each other.

Al-Masalat was the fifth American killed in the West Bank since October 7, 2023. No trial was held in his murder case either.

NPR producer Noha Musleh contributed to this story from the West Bank. NPR producers Itay Stern and Alon Avital contributed from Tel Aviv.