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ON POINT - This is the story of a 15-year-old American boy who, according to family testimony, media reporting, and human-rights advocacy accounts, was captured and subjected to treatment that international law recognizes as psychological and physical torture by a country that claims to be our ally. Military troops seized the boy during an early-morning assault on his family’s home. Following his abduction, family members and advocates report that he was beaten, held in dangerous prison conditions, and coerced into a confession that he later recanted. This account is one among several documented cases in which American citizens have been killed, injured, or severely mistreated by Israeli forces, without transparent accountability or consequences. Despite this record, the United States continues to provide billions of dollars annually in economic, military, and diplomatic support to Israel.
Because of his young age, the boy is referred to here only as “Mo.” Mo was born and raised in Florida. According to multiple media accounts and advocacy reports, Israeli forces detained Mo in early 2025 and held him for approximately nine months in the notorious Megiddo Prison. This Israeli prison has been repeatedly criticized by human-rights organizations for overcrowding, inadequate sanitation, insufficient medical care, and the detention of minors under harsh conditions. Mo’s transfer from the occupied West Bank to a prison inside Israel appears to conflict with provisions of the Geneva Conventions that prohibit transferring detainees from occupied territory into the territory of the occupying power, a prohibition that international law applies with particular strictness to children.
Mo’s family secured his release only after sustained diplomatic engagement and public advocacy. During his confinement, Mo reportedly lost approximately one-third of his body weight. He was also reportedly housed with, or in close proximity to, another detainee who later died in custody after what advocates describe as a failure by authorities to provide adequate medical care. Taken together, these reported facts constitute a prima facie case that Israel subjected Mo to treatment that meets the legal definition of physical and psychological torture under international law.
Background: Arrest and Detention
Mo was abducted during a nighttime raid on his family’s home in the occupied West Bank. Israeli authorities alleged that he had thrown stones at Israeli vehicles or soldiers—an offense treated as a serious security crime under Israeli military law applicable in the West Bank. Mo and his family deny the allegations, asserting that he did not throw stones and that any confession obtained during interrogation was the product of violent Israeli coercion. Public reporting indicates that Israeli authorities have not produced evidence of injury to any person or damage to property arising from the alleged stone-throwing.
Importantly, available reporting indicates that Mo was not detained at the scene of any alleged offense but was instead seized hours or days later during a pre-dawn home raid, a practice widely documented by journalists and human-rights groups committed against indigenous Semitic Gentiles in the Occupied Territory.
As a Semitic Gentile minor, Mo was processed through Israel’s military court system rather than a civilian juvenile court. The UN Human Rights Council and multiple international organizations have noted that Israel is widely regarded as the only state that routinely prosecutes children in military courts. Mo’s detention was repeatedly extended over several months, with limited family contact and under conditions described by family members and legal advocates as horrific. While Israeli authorities maintain that his detention was lawful and security-related, the duration of confinement, Mo’s age, and the reported conditions have prompted international outrage and seriously undermine Israel’s claim of legality.
Starvation and Severe Weight Loss
One of the most alarming aspects of Mo’s detention is the reported loss of roughly one-third of his body weight. Such a drastic reduction is not consistent with ordinary fluctuations associated with incarceration and strongly evidences prolonged caloric deprivation or severe malnutrition. In detention settings, authorities exercise complete control over access to food, and Mo’s family reports that they were prevented from providing nutritional supplementation.
Under the United Nations Convention Against Torture, torture includes acts that intentionally inflict—or knowingly permit—severe physical or mental suffering by or with the acquiescence of public officials. International human-rights bodies have long recognized deliberate or knowing starvation of detainees as a method of torture. Starvation causes intense physical suffering, long-term health damage, and profound psychological distress. When committed against a child, the consequences are widely recognized as especially severe and potentially permanent.
International law does not excuse prolonged starvation as mere “neglect” once severe harm becomes apparent. If authorities observe extreme weight loss and fail to intervene, continued deprivation constitutes knowing infliction of suffering. Given Mo’s age, his Israeli captors owed him heightened protection and an affirmative duty to ensure adequate nutrition and medical care. On the reported facts, Mo’s weight loss alone raises a prima facie case of torture under international legal standards.
Psychological Torture and the Death of a Cellmate
Equally disturbing are reports that Israel confined Mo with, or near, another detainee who later died in custody following what advocates allege was a prolonged failure to provide necessary medical care. While public information regarding the deceased detainee’s identity and cause of death remains limited, the reported circumstance—that Mo was forced to witness the deterioration and death of another prisoner while under total state control—raises grave legal concerns.
International law recognizes that torture is not limited to physical pain. Psychological torture includes the intentional or knowing exposure of detainees to extreme suffering, death, or dying. The Istanbul Protocol, the UN-endorsed manual for documenting torture, explicitly identifies forced exposure to death or severe suffering as a form of psychological torture.
For a child, confinement in such circumstances can produce intense fear, helplessness, and a credible perception of imminent personal harm. International courts and UN experts have repeatedly found that forcing detainees—especially minors—to witness preventable deaths in custody can constitute cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment and, in severe cases, torture.
Lawful Detention vs. Unlawful Treatment
International law draws a clear distinction between the legality of detention and the legality of treatment. Even if one assumes, solely for the sake of argument, that Mo’s apprehension and detention complied with Israeli military regulations, torture is never lawful. No security justification permits starvation, severe neglect, or psychological abuse. The prohibition on torture is absolute.
Israel, like all states, is bound by its obligations under international treaties and customary international law. When a U.S. child emerges from custody having lost a third of his body weight and reports exposure to a detainee’s death under state control, those facts demand independent investigation of and accountability for Israel’s actions.
Other Victims
Israel has a long and violent history of killing or harming Americans who voice political opposition to Israeli abuse of the indigenous population. In 2024, Israel killed Ayşenur Ezgi Egyi during a protest against West Bank ethnic cleansing, where witnesses described Israeli troops directing live fire at protesters. In 2022, an Israeli sniper shot and killed acclaimed American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who had long reported on Israeli human-rights abuses. That same year, Israel abducted Omar Assad, a 78-year-old American, who was bound, gagged, and later found dead from heart failure suffered during his detention. In 2009, Israel shot Tristan Anderson in the head with a high-velocity tear-gas canister, leaving him partially paralyzed with permanent brain damage. Rachel Corrie is perhaps the most well-known example: in 2003, Israeli personnel crushed her to death with a bulldozer as she attempted to prevent the demolition of Palestinian homes.
The list goes on. Over the past two decades, Israel has systematically harmed American citizens in well-documented incidents with near-total impunity. A familiar pattern emerges: Israel uses violence against unarmed U.S. citizens who oppose Israeli policy; Israel claims to investigate; nothing happens; and American politicians fail to act—apparently out of fear of political consequences.
Conclusion
Israel’s Prime Minister has been indicted by the ICC as a war criminal. Israel has been credibly accused of genocide against the indigenous Semitic Gentiles. As such, Israel’s disregard for American life should come as no surprise. What is surprising is the willingness of American politicians to turn a blind eye to Israeli violence against American citizens.
Protection of Americans is a core obligation of our government. Our government must prevent harm to our citizens, intervene when Americans are abused, and hold foreign governments accountable for misconduct. Our government has repeatedly failed to protect us from Israeli violence. The Leahy Laws were designed specifically to create consequences for foreign abuse or murder of Americans. Yet, no President, Democratic or Republican, has stood to protect Americans from repeated Israeli violence. When Israel can abduct and allegedly torture one of our children for months without consequence, we know our government has utterly failed us. We deserve better and must demand that our government protect us from Israeli violence.
(J. George Mansour was born and raised in Missouri and has long been a student of political science and international relations. Mr. Mansour is now based in Austin Texas, where he remains an active investor in a variety of businesses.)
