On a quiet hillside in the occupied West Bank town of Sinjil, hundreds of mourners gathered Sunday to bury two young men. Among them was Saif al-Din Kamel Abdul Karim Muslat, a 23-year-old Palestinian-American, who was beaten to death by illegal Israeli settlers. The other, Mohammed al-Shalabi, also 23, was shot in the chest during the same attack.
The killings have sparked renewed outrage, grief, and international concern — not just because of the growing toll of settler violence, but because one of the victims was a U.S. citizen, returning to his homeland for the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha.
“Saif came back for Eid, and when settlers started building an outpost near Sinjil, he joined locals to push them back,” his uncle, Abdel Jalil Hijaz, told Anadolu Agency.
“They beat him to death.”
Settler Violence Reaching Crisis Levels
According to Palestinian authorities, there are now 770,000 illegal Israeli settlers living in 180 settlements and 256 outposts across the occupied West Bank — all illegal under international law. These settlements continue to grow, often accompanied by land seizures, home demolitions, and escalating violence.
The UN, International Court of Justice, and nearly every major international body have condemned Israel’s settlement enterprise as a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits the transfer of an occupying power’s civilian population into occupied territory.
In July 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) delivered a landmark opinion declaring Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem illegal, and called for the full evacuation of settlements.
Yet, the reality on the ground tells a different story.
In the first six months of this year alone, Palestinian records show 2,153 settler attacks, resulting in four Palestinian deaths.
And since Israel began what many human rights groups and governments now call a genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023, the violence in the West Bank has intensified. The Palestinian Health Ministry reports at least 998 Palestinians killed and over 7,000 injured by Israeli forces and settlers in the West Bank alone.
A U.S. Citizen, Yet No Justice
Muslat’s U.S. citizenship adds another dimension to this tragedy — one that implicates Washington directly. The killing of an American abroad typically triggers diplomatic pressure, investigations, and international scrutiny. But for Palestinian-Americans in occupied Palestine, the story often ends with silence.
As of now, there has been no public statement from U.S. officials regarding Muslat’s death.
This silence underscores the imbalance in how violence against Palestinians — even those with dual nationality — is treated on the global stage. For many observers, it reflects a pattern of political convenience that continues to shield Israel from accountability.
A Funeral, and a Warning
The funerals of Saif Muslat and Mohammed al-Shalabi weren’t just acts of mourning. They were acts of defiance, and expressions of a people’s ongoing struggle for dignity and justice. For the residents of Sinjil and surrounding villages, the violence isn’t new — but the frequency and brazenness of attacks are growing.
As Israeli settlers continue to move with impunity, and Palestinian civilians are left to defend their land often with little more than their bodies, the two-state solution — once seen as the cornerstone of peace — fades further into abstraction.
The international community has long recognized the illegality of Israeli settlements. The question now is not one of legal clarity, but of political will.
How many more funerals must be held before that will materializes?