Update as of Wednesday 2 November 3:30PM Eastern time:
Breaking News: Shadi returned to court on Wednesday and his parents were shocked to learn that he and other teens were beaten again the day before. Amnesty MENA is reporting this as torture. Shadi and the others were returned to jail without charges being announced.
Please contact your elected officials to protest this blatant violation of International law.

In the early morning hours before dawn on Tuesday, October 18^th, a squad of 12 Israeli Border Police and Shin Bet agents broke into the gates of the Beit Hanina (east Jerusalem) compound where the Khoury family lives. Pounding on the door, they demanded entry into the home. 

The family might have imagined the interlopers’ target was the father, Suhail, who directs the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music, or even his wife, Rania, who is the head of the Yabous Cultural Center. Both had been briefly detained by Israeli Occupation Forces earlier in the summer as part of a crackdown on Palestinian NGOs.

Although less likely, the soldiers’ might have been looking for Suhail’s mother. Now in her late 80’s, “Auntie” Samia is a life-long Episcopalian and an outspoken critic of the Israeli occupation. She is also founding member of the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center in Jerusalem.

Instead, the soldiers demanded to know, “Where is Shadi?” Shadi Khoury, 16, is Rania and Suhail’s youngest son, an 11^th grade student at the Friends (Quaker) School in Ramallah, and the apple of his grandmother’s eye. He stood there in his pajamas with the other family members and identified himself. 

The soldiers demanded he get dressed and come with them. When Shadi refused to disrobe in front of the soldiers, his grandmother reports that “[the soldiers] beat him until he was bleeding all over the room and along the path on the way out of the house, dragging him barefoot and blindfolded and not allowing [his] parents to see where the blood was coming from.” The trail of blood continued on through the broken courtyard gates to where the police vehicle waited to take Shadi away to the infamous al-Moskobiya prison. The family’s pleas that they be allowed to tend to Shadi’s bleeding, or to know why he was being taken away, were refused.

Sadly, what happened to Shadi and the Khoury family that morning over two weeks ago is not unusual. According to the latest available statistics compiled by the recently banned Defense for Children International-Palestine (DCI-P) using official Israeli sources, nearly 170 underage children were being similarly detained, with 22 being held in solitary confinement. Current statistics are not available, but these numbers have likely risen in recent months. As his grandmother Samia writes, Shadi is like many Palestinian children who “are being harassed, tortured, and imprisoned for no reason other than being a Palestinian, seeking to live in dignity and freedom in their own country.”

Even though he is a minor, Shadi was interrogated without his parents or a lawyer being present, “a tactic that”, as Samia points out, “is used to terrorize children into submission and to use their own words to incriminate them.” Despite being a signatory to the U.N. Convention Against Torture, Israel has frequently been accused of violating the Convention’s provisions against torture and ill-treatment when trying to obtain “confessions” from Palestinian minors. And these confessions are written in Hebrew, a language many do not speak. 

Shadi has two advantages over Palestinian children from the West Bank: first, his family can see him at court. Calling out messages of love and encouragement in a police yard or a crowded courtroom   may seem small comfort, but it is more than what is afforded children who live in the occupied Palestinian Territories. They likely won’t have that comforting presence in court, as the parents may be denied entry permits to Israel based on undisclosed security grounds.

Shadi also has a personal lawyer, and not just a court-appointed defender. Of course, his lawyer has only been granted permission to see Shadi on three occasions since his arrest, for about 10 minutes each time. That isn’t much, but it allows for some family messages and trusted legal advice to be passed along.

After more than two weeks, the reason for Shadi’s arrest is still not known. Shadi’s mother, Rania wrote, saying, “Shadi is a normal, shy, confident boy. We raised him to be strong and stand for justice and rights.” At each of his four court appearances thus far, the court has granted the prosecutor a continuance, a delay, and returned Shadi to his cell. His lawyer’s request for Shadi to be released to his family under house arrest was denied early on. The swelling and bruises, so apparent at the first two appearances, have begun to fade, and still neither his lawyer nor his parents have been informed of the charges against him. 

Sadly, this is also not unusual. Just this week, the November 3^rd Sabeel Center’s Wave of Prayer announcement included a prayer for Tareq Al-Araj, a member of the Palestinian National Youth Football (Soccer) Team. He was arrested two years ago and his trial was postponed seventeen times before he was convicted and sentenced to four years in prison for being a member of a political group banned by the Israeli government.

Shadi’s next court date has been scheduled for Wednesday of this week. It is possible, though not certain, that we will learn of the charges against him then. Or perhaps not. According to his family, he remains in good spirits. At the end of one court session, he asked about the progress of his favorite soccer teams. But as Ahed Tamimi, another Palestinian who was arrested and spent 8 months in prison as a 16 year old attests to in her recently released memoir, They Called Me a Lioness, prison life has the effect of wearing you down over time. “The most dangerous thing you can do in prison,” she writes, “is sit there and wallow in negative thoughts.” 

Efforts are being made to see him released. In our ENS Press Release, we called on all members and friends of EPF PIN to urge Shadi’s release using the template offered by the Friends of Sabeel North America. It contains links for people living in the Canada and the United Kingdom, as well as in the U.S. to contact their elected officials. More than 1,400 have participated so far.

Churches for Middle East Peace, an advocacy group of 30 Christian groups including The Episcopal Church, also issued a Press Release calling out the Israeli practice of violently arresting and detaining children and urging support for Rep. Betty McCollum’s bill, Defending the Human Rights of Palestinian Children and Families Living Under Israeli Military Occupation Act, H.R. 2590. (Note: In 2018, The Episcopal Church (TEC) adopted Resolution C038, Call for Guaranteed Basic Rights and Protection of Palestinian Children. Since that time TEC has issued action alerts and the Presiding Bishop has encouraged us to support this legislation calling for an end to the Israeli practice of child detention.) 

The family has had a pastoral visit from former Catholic Patriarch Michel Sabbah, and our own Archbishop in Jerusalem, Hosam Naoum has called the family offering his prayers and support. His big sister, Rand, produced a video calling on the U.N. to act, and his father recorded a musical piece with Banat al Quds (the “Daughters of Jerusalem” and members of the National Conservatory Orchestra. Grandmother Samia says they hope to sing it to Shadi upon his release.

Prominent public figures such as U.N. Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese and former PLO negotiator Dr. Hanan Ashrawi have tweeted their concern and support for Shadi. Indigenous MP from Ottawa, Leah Gazan, and her Hamilton colleague Matthew Green have called on the Canadian Foreign Minister to press Israel for Shadi’s release. British MP Layla Moran from West Oxford has written to Foreign Secretary James Cleverly. And Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan wrote, “This is a direct result of unconditional funding to the tune of $3.8 Billion with no accountability. This is what happens when our country refuses to even recognize the most basic human rights protections for Palestinian children.” His school in Ramallah held a rally for and issued a statement which started “Our students and community are in pain. We love and miss Shadi very much.” They concluded a call “to people of conscience everywhere to mobilize efforts in support of Shadi and all Palestinian children who experience the brutality of Israeli detention at young ages. This is no way to treat a child.”

We appreciate these actions and call on the leaders of our Episcopal Church to again speak out, privately and publicly, on behalf of Shadi and the many other children currently being detained for extended periods of time without access to family or legal representation. As Shadi’s grandmother Samia asks her friends, “Until when will this grave injustice go on? Shadi should not be sleeping in a prison cell. He is a child and should be home with his family.” 

Thanks to EPF PIN member Randy Heyn-Lamb for this reporting.