Chicago – April 09, 2025
A tragic incident occurred over the weekend when a 14-year-old Palestinian American boy named Amir Rabee was killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank. Amir was picking olives with two friends, who were also U.S. citizens, when Israeli soldiers fired at them.
The Israeli military explained that they opened fire after the group was reportedly throwing rocks at passing cars on a highway in the village of Turmus Ayya. One person was killed, and the other two were injured.
Amir’s family, who had moved to their ancestral home in Turmus Ayya after living in New Jersey, is devastated. His father, Mohammed Rabee, called the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem for help after hearing about the shooting, but it arrived too late. He had to go to an Israeli military base in Nablus to identify and collect his son’s body.
The U.S. State Department confirmed the death of an American citizen and offered their condolences. U.S. politicians, including Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman and New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, have called for answers from the Israeli government, with Governor Murphy labeling the death an “atrocity.”
