Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky

By Sigal Samuel July 6, 2014

“They hit me — and they kept hitting me,” said 15-year-old Palestinian American Tariq Abu Khdeir of Israeli police, who beat him during a protest at the home of his slain cousin Mohammed Abu Khdeir.

Tariq Abu Khdeir spoke about his experience in a video published by Addameer after he was released from Israeli custody on Sunday afternoon. He said that he was a mere bystander and not a participant in the July 3 protest, despite various reports in the Israeli media claiming that he resisted arrest, attacked policemen and carried a slingshot or a knife.

“I was standing and watching the group of people,” he said. “They came from the side of me and grabbed me.”

He lost consciousness and woke up in Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem, where he was held under police guard. Asked if he was treated well while in Israeli custody after the beating, he said yes.

Tariq Abu Khdeir, a high school sophomore from Tampa, Fla. who was visiting his Palestinian relatives in the Shuafat neighborhood of Jerusalem for the first time in over a decade, has not been charged with a crime. An Israeli judge released him from jail and placed him under house arrest. His lawyer said he would be restricted to a relative’s home for nine days.

Thousands of Forward readers support our nonprofit newsroom.

You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.

And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.

That’s where you come in. Gifts of any size keep the Forward free and accessible to everyone and ensure we have the resources we need to power the Forward at this critical time for American Jews.

Don't just read the Forward - invest in it. That’s only possible thanks to the support of readers like you. Will you support our work today?

Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

$120 $180 $360 OTHER AMOUNT