Israel released detained Palestinian-American teen after Kushner intervened — sources

Israel agreed to release a Palestinian-American teenager detained for over nine months after US President Donald Trump’s top aide Jared Kushner intervened on the boy’s behalf last month, a US official and a second source familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel.

Israel detained Mohammed Ibrahim in February on allegations that he threw stones at Israeli troops in the West Bank — a charge his family denies. Ibrahim wasn’t charged and instead held using a controversial practice known as administrative detention, where suspects can be held indefinitely without due process. The tool is employed against several thousand Palestinians and a number of Israeli Arabs; Defense Minister Israel Katz ordered an end to its application against Israeli Jews earlier this year.

Ibrahim turned 16 in prison, and his family said that his health significantly deteriorated, as he lost over 20 pounds and contracted scabies — both common consequences for Palestinian prisoners, according to Israel’s own Public Defender’s Office. A Florida resident, Ibrahim was visiting family in the West Bank when he was arrested.

Ibrahim’s family lobbied US lawmakers for his release, and the boy’s case eventually was brought to the attention of Kushner, who contacted senior Israeli officials demanding his release, the US official and second source said. Washington took particular issue with the fact that a US citizen was being held without charge by an allied country, the sources said.

Two weeks before his release, representatives from the US Embassy in Jerusalem visited Ibrahim and were taken aback by the deteriorated state of his physical and mental health, a relative told The Times of Israel, adding that Israeli guards had several times beaten the teenager. The Israel Prisons Service did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Kushner’s intervention came as the Trump administration has gradually increased its involvement in West Bank affairs, after primarily engaging on Palestinian matters relating to the Gaza Strip due to the war there between Israel and Hamas.

US officials have spoken out against rampant, unchecked Israeli settler violence, expressing some concern that it could have a spill-over effect into Gaza.

And after largely ignoring the Palestinian Authority for much of the year, the US has begun engaging with its leadership over the past two months, ostensibly recognizing that Ramallah’s support for Trump’s Gaza peace plan will be critical for getting Arab countries on board, even if Washington doesn’t want the PA to play an immediate role in the postwar management of the Strip.

Following US engagement at the United Nations, the PA lobbied Arab countries to back a Washington-crafted Security Council resolution mandating Trump’s Board of Peace to oversee the administration of Gaza for the next two years.

After the November 17 vote, Kushner called PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s deputy Hussein al-Sheikh to thank Ramallah for its assistance, the two sources revealed to The Times of Israel.

The two have been in touch since, establishing a high-level communication channel between Washington and Ramallah.

Days after that vote, Kushner dispatched Scott Leith — a senior US State Department official working on the Palestinian file — to join former UK prime minister Tony Blair for a meeting with Sheikh. The sides discussed ways to integrate the PA in the postwar management of Gaza, including in the training of Palestinian police, the sources said.

Sheikh also used the opportunity to address the several billion dollars in clearance revenues that Israel has been withholding from the PA in protest of its policies, depriving it of funds it desperately needs to continue operating in the West Bank.

Days after the meeting, Kushner reached out to Israel to demand Ibrahim’s release, which took place on November 27.

While recognizing the new communication channel between Kushner and Sheikh, Palestinian analyst Ibrahim Dalalsha argued that it’s “too early to speak of a new dynamic in US-Palestinian relations.”

“Unless Mr. Kushner convinces the Israelis to change their position against allowing the PA in Gaza or to release the [Palestinian clearance revenues], the contacts [with Sheikh] may just be a management exercise,” said Dalalsha, who heads the Horizon Center research group and used to serve as an adviser at the since-shuttered US Consulate in Jerusalem.

Kushner and Sheikh did not return requests to comment on the record for this story.