Amer Zahr's arrest reasserts a dangerous truth: American lives become disposable under U.S. policy on Israel Dear Email, American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) condemns Israel’s arrest of Amer Zahr in the strongest possible terms. While we are relieved to hear that he was released this morning, his detention should never have happened in the first place, and his release does not absolve anyone of responsibility. Accountability is still owed. Amer Zahr is an American citizen. But American citizenship should not operate under some grotesque “golden rule,” where protection is conditional, selective, or politically convenient. Israel has a long and well-documented record of arbitrarily detaining, indefinitely imprisoning, and killing Palestinians, American citizens or not, with no probable cause. We condemn those practices unequivocally, for everyone, on all terms. At the same time, the United States has a clear and non-negotiable duty to protect its own citizens from precisely this kind of abuse. That duty has been repeatedly and shamefully abandoned.  No American should be subjected to arbitrary detention or violence by a foreign entity, especially not by one that survives politically, militarily, and financially on U.S. backing. Israel has shown, time and again, that it does not respect the United States or the lives of Americans. It has detained and killed U.S. citizens with impunity: journalists like Shireen Abu Akleh, children like Mohammed Ibrahim, activists like Rachel Corrie, and Aisha Nour (Ayşenur Eygi). And still, our government continues to prop it up, excuse the behavior, and move on as if American lives are expendable when Israel is the perpetrator. This is complete negligence, and the double standard is so blatant that it is impossible to ignore. When Americans are harmed by other governments, Washington rushes to condemn, sanction, and retaliate,” said Dr. Osama Abu Irshaid, AMP’s executive director. “When Israel does it, there is silence, deflection, or outright justification. That hypocrisy is not only immoral but also dangerous. It is precisely this recklessness, this refusal to draw lines or impose consequences, that enables Israel’s sense of total impunity. It is what allows genocide and war crimes to continue with U.S. weapons, U.S. funding, and U.S. political cover.” The responsibility does not rest with Israel alone. It rests with the U.S. government and elected officials in both parties, who have chosen complicity over accountability and loyalty to a foreign state over their obligation to their own people. If the United States is serious about protecting its citizens and upholding any claim to the rule of law, this must be a red line. Words are not enough. There must be real consequences, transparent, public, and enforceable, so that Israel understands that American lives are not disposable and that impunity will no longer be guaranteed. In solidarity, American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) |
