Assad Assad says he and his household really feel betrayed.
However greater than that, the Palestinian American stated his first response to the US authorities’s choice to proceed funding an Israeli military unit that sure his aged uncle and left him for lifeless might be summed up in a single phrase: “devastation”.
“We see this [as] hypocrisy — a US government that allows a foreign entity to have this opportunity to kill,” Assad, 36, advised Al Jazeera in a telephone interview from his residence within the state of Wisconsin.
“They murdered my uncle in cold blood. My uncle was not armed, was not…,” he continued, his voice trailing off. “He was just going home from a night with his friends, his cousins, playing a card game.”
Omar Assad, a 78-year-old Palestinian American, died in January 2022 after he was detained by Israeli troopers at a checkpoint in his residence village of Jiljilya, close to Ramallah within the occupied West Financial institution.
He was pressured out of his automobile after which gagged, blindfolded and dragged on the bottom, in response to witness accounts and his household. He was unresponsive and the troopers left him out within the chilly at a development web site with none help or medical care.
An post-mortem later discovered that he had died of a coronary heart assault “due to the external violence he was exposed to”.
His loss of life prompted widespread condemnation, and the Assad household and Palestinian rights advocates within the US have referred to as on President Joe Biden’s administration to conduct an impartial investigation and guarantee Israel is held accountable.
These calls grew louder after the Israeli military stated in 2023 that troopers concerned within the incident had been disciplined however none would face legal costs.
In April of this 12 months, the US State Division stated it was wanting into whether or not to sanction the Israeli navy battalion that had detained Omar Assad — the Netzah Yehuda Battalion — which is infamous for abuses within the West Financial institution.
However final week, the division stated Secretary of State Antony Blinken had decided that points with Netzah Yehuda had been “remediated” — and the unit may proceed receiving US authorities funding.
“My cousins and my uncle’s wife don’t want to speak to the media. They are just distraught, and they don’t want to be around any of this because it’s unbelievable,” stated Assad, Omar’s nephew. “It’s unjust. It’s just hypocrisy.”
Sample of impunity
The Biden administration’s choice to proceed funding Netzah Yehuda comes amid a surge in Israeli navy and settler violence towards Palestinians within the occupied West Financial institution beneath the shadow of the nation’s struggle within the close by Gaza Strip.
Practically 600 Palestinians had been killed by Israeli forces and settlers within the West Financial institution between the beginning of the Gaza struggle on October 7 and August 12, in response to the newest figures from the United Nations humanitarian affairs workplace (OCHA).
However Palestinians within the occupied territories have confronted many years of Israeli state violence.
Additionally they have come up towards what rights teams describe as a system of “endemic impunity” for troopers and settlers concerned in assaults towards Palestinians.
Omar Assad was not the primary — or the one — American citizen killed by Israeli troopers who later evaded legal costs.
Simply months after the 78-year-old’s killing, in Might 2022, the Israeli military fatally shot famend Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh within the northern West Financial institution metropolis of Jenin.
In one other latest case, in January of this 12 months, 17-year-old Tawfiq Ajaq, who was born and raised within the US, was killed within the West Financial institution village of al-Mazra’a ash-Sharqiya when an off-duty Israeli police officer and an Israeli settler opened hearth.
Each households are nonetheless looking for justice and accountability for the killings of their family members.
Ahmad Abuznaid, govt director of the US Marketing campaign for Palestinian Rights, stated, “It’s frustrating to see the United States not only have a lack of care for Palestinians, a lack of care for international law, but an unwillingness to enforce US law.”
The US Leahy Regulation, for instance, prohibits help to overseas navy items that commit abuses.
Abuznaid advised Al Jazeera there’s a double customary at play in American overseas coverage: The US authorities solely reserves full-throated outrage for anti-Israeli actions, however not anti-Palestinian ones.
“When the Israelis commit a whole genocide [in Gaza], when they kill Shireen Abu Akleh or Omar Assad, the United States is concerned. When the Israelis can point to something that the Palestinians have done, it’s immediately condemned,” he stated.
That distinction indicators that “the US government views Palestinian people as disposable”, Abuznaid added.
“Their foreign policy has been shaped around an all-out support for Israel, no matter what. And this clearly puts US foreign policy at odds with Palestinians who bear the brunt of Zionism and are currently bearing the brunt of the US-Israel war machine’s genocide.”
‘Palestinian lives do not matter’
That’s a sense shared by many who knew Omar Assad personally.
Othman Atta is the manager director of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee, the US metropolis the place the 78-year-old had lived together with his household for a few years earlier than retiring in Jiljilya.
A lawyer by career, Atta stated he helped Omar together with his household companies. Atta additionally would see him at social occasions within the Milwaukee space, which is residence to many households whose roots return to Jiljilya.
Atta stated the US authorities’s choice to proceed funding Netzah Yehuda sends a transparent message “that in the eyes of the US government and US officials, that Palestinian lives do not matter, even if they happen to be carrying US citizenship”.
That, coupled with Washington’s unwavering navy and diplomatic backing of Israel after 10 months of a devastating struggle in Gaza, has shaken him.
“We actually see a genocide taking place. We see people are being starved. They are being denied water. They are being bombed into oblivion [with] no regard for any human life,” Atta advised Al Jazeera.
“And yet we cheer [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu in Congress. We send billions of dollars in aid,” he stated. “It’s very difficult to fathom the depths of hypocrisy, of hatred against Palestinians and innocent people in Gaza. It really shakes you to the core.”
‘We need to find justice’
The US State Division didn’t reply by publication time to Al Jazeera’s request for touch upon the choice to proceed funding Netzah Yehuda, or to criticism that the transfer fails to make sure accountability in Omar Assad’s loss of life.
In an announcement shared by media shops final Friday, State Division spokesman Matthew Miller stated Washington had reviewed data supplied by Israel and decided that violations by the unit had “been effectively remediated”.
Because of this, beneath US legislation, Netzah Yehuda may proceed receiving help, Miller stated.
However for Assad Assad, Omar’s nephew, the choice just isn’t the tip of his household’s push for justice.
He described his uncle as a severe man who on the similar time would by no means move up an opportunity to joke round and make everybody chortle. “He was serious, but he was always funny with everything he did,” Assad advised Al Jazeera.
“He was a good man that raised a large family. He has grandchildren and sisters and brothers that loved him dearly. His nephews all missed him,” he added.
“We need to find justice for my uncle.”
