‘Can’t stop’: US teen’s family seeks elusive justice in West Bank killing
Al Jazeera
US has been accused of failing to hold Israel accountable for the killings of its citizens, despite mounting pressure.
The trip was meant to be a homecoming: a chance for Tawfiq Ajaq, a 17-year-old born and raised in the United States, to connect with his Palestinian roots.
Instead, his family’s ancestral village of al-Mazra’a ash-Sharqiya became his final resting place. On January 19, Palestinian officials say Ajaq was fatally shot after an off-duty Israeli police officer and an Israeli settler opened fire.
Ajaq is one of the latest victims of the soaring violence perpetrated by Israeli security forces and settlers in the occupied West Bank, following a Hamas attack in southern Israel last year.
His uncle Mohammad Abdeljabbar told Al Jazeera that his family holds out hope that some justice may yet be served.
They seek any recourse that could “avoid this happening again in the future, whether or not they’re a US citizen, so nobody else is killed unjustifiably”, Abdeljabbar said. The family has also called on the US to “put enough pressure on Israel” to see that through.
