Shireen Abu-Akleh, Amer Rabee, Saif Musallet. Image: Jeffrey St. Clair.

His family and friends called him Saif. He was affable and gregarious. He was kind and generous. He was handsome and athletic. He helped run the family’s ice cream parlor in Tampa. He liked cars, hip-hop, soccer and the beach. He was an American kid with Palestinian roots.

A few weeks before his 21st birthday he traveled to the West Bank to visit relatives. His family owns land in al-Mazra’a ash-Sharqiya, a Palestinian village northeast of Ramallah. In his last phone call with his father, Saif was upbeat, glad to be exploring his familial roots. He said that he felt he was finally ready to get married and hoped he might fall in love with a woman in Palestine.

But Saif would would not find a beautiful Palestinian girl to marry. He’d never return to Tampa, to his friends, to his siblings or to his parents. Said would not turn that magical age of 21.

Sayfollah Musallet would die only a week after coming to Palestine. He would die shortly after attending Friday prayers in the ancient town of Sinjil.

But die is not the right word.

Saif was killed. Killed isn’t precise either.

Saif was murdered. Murdered by a mob. He was clubbed in the head repeatedly and left to die. The ambulance that might have saved him was blocked. The mob that killed Saif had smashed the windshield and kept it from moving for at least two hours. When his brother reached Saif’s crumpled body, he was bloody and unconscious, but still breathing. By the time paramedics were finally allowed through, his face was blue and he had no pulse.

Saif wasn’t the only body on the ground, while the ambulance was waylaid.

Mohammed Rizq Hussein al-Shalabi, a 23-year-old Palestinian, was down, having been shot in the chest by the same mob that attacked Saif. Mohammed also died that day, left to bleed out as paramedics were kept from treating him. When his body was found hours later, he had bruising on his neck and face, suggesting that he’d been beaten either before or after being shot.

Saif’s body also showed signs of other forms of abuse. According to his cousin, Diana Halum, who examined his body after it was retrieved: “His body showed signs of strangulation, a large bruise on his back that looked like it came from a rock, and dirt was found in his mouth.”

There is no mystery about who attacked Saif and Mohammed or who kept life-saving medical care from reaching them. In fact, the killers were still on the scene when Israeli security forces........

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