Palestinian NJ teen killed in West Bank is laid to rest
3-minute read
Gazans march in largest anti-Hamas protests since war with Israel began
Thousands in the Gaza Strip marched in anti-Hamas demonstrations, the largest since the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks triggered the ongoing war with Israel.
CBC English
Hundreds of mourners gathered in the West Bank to pay their respects at the funeral of Amer Rabee, a New Jersey teenager whom Israeli forces fatally shot and who was laid to rest on Monday.
Family members carried the body of 14-year-old Amer through the streets in Turmus Ayya, a town in the occupied West Bank, expressing grief and outrage over his killing. Amer, formerly of Saddle Brook, was shot and killed in the town a day earlier, while two other teenagers were wounded.
Amer’s father, Mohammed, demanded U.S. action and accountability for the fatal shooting. He said in a statement that the boys had gone out to a farm area to pick green almonds. Amer’s two friends were able to run away after the shooting, but his injured son was detained by Israeli soldiers.
Mohammed Rabee said he called the U.S. Embassy to try to get help for his son but an hour later got the news that he was dead. He was in shock and mourning, he said, while praising Amer as a good son and student, adding that “not a single person ever complained about him.”
One of the wounded teens, Ayoub Jabara, 15, is also an American citizen and is in the hospital in intensive care, the town’s Mayor Lafi Shalabi told The Washington Post. Their other friend, 15-year-old Abdulrahman Shihada, was also hospitalized.
The Israeli Defense Forces said in a statement that its troops opened fire during counterterrorism activity in the area, killing one, after identifying “three terrorists who were throwing rocks at a highway with civilian vehicles” and “who posed a danger to civilians.”
The IDF released a brief, grainy video that it says shows the incident. Three figures can be seen, and one of the figures appears to throw something at the end.
‘Our children are in danger’
The video does not prove that his son threw rocks or that he even was there, Amer’s father said. Even if it did, that would not justify killing him, he added. A medical examiner’s reports show the boy was shot 11 times, including in the chest, shoulder and head, and that he was wounded by two types of guns, Rabee said.
“Our children are in danger,” Rabee said in an interview posted on social media platforms. “Everyone is in danger, those who claim democracy, peace and protection … I mean, if you open an American passport, it says that America moves the fleet for [the protection of] one person.”
U.S. leaders, he said, “are supposed to take care of American citizens.” He asked President Donald Trump “to stop sending weapons to kill his people.”
On Tuesday, Trump met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House. They reportedly spoke about tariffs and getting Israeli hostages released from Gaza. Advocates said the White House’s silence on the killing of Palestinian Americans was unacceptable.
“Is there distinction between a Palestinian who has American citizenship and an Israeli who has American citizenship?” Rabee said, adding that the U.S. had turned a blind eye to atrocities against them.
In a statement, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry denounced the incident as an “extra-judicial killing” by Israeli forces. The Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Palestinian American Community Center in Clifton, where Amer’s uncle is a board member, called on the U.S. to investigate the killing.
The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.
Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, a Democrat who represents New Jersey’s 12th Congressional District, called the incident “an atrocity” in a statement on X.
“How can the Israeli military possibly justify shooting and killing an American teenager in cold blood?” she said. “The US must step in and stop this madness.”
A second home for Palestinian Americans
Amer’s family members, including an uncle and two brothers who live in Wayne, traveled to the West Bank on Sunday for the funeral.
Mahmoud Ijbara of Clifton, a cousin of the teen, said Monday that his family was trying to get more information about the events surrounding the shooting.
“I was looking at one of the videos, and his mom is telling him bye and kissing his forehead,” Ijbara said. “There are tears in my eyes. Me, as a cousin, it’s tough. Imagine his own mom. It’s unwatchable.”
The incident resonated in New Jersey’s large Palestinian community. Turmus Ayya is a popular destination and a hometown for many Palestinian Americans, who spend summers there, live there part time or retire there. Its…
Read More: Palestinian NJ teen killed in West Bank is laid to rest