When Israel Murders U.S. Citizens, the U.S. Govt Looks Away

How many names of these 9 U.S. citizens killed by Israel since 2022 alone do you recognize?

Globally recognized labor organizer Chris Smalls is finally free from an Israeli prison. But not before the Israeli military brutally beat and tortured him for his ‘crime’ of traveling in the Handala Flotilla to get aid to Palestinians suffering genocide. Smalls, the only Black volunteer in a cohort of 17, was also the only person beaten and tortured. And you’d be hard pressed to find any American politician who screams “America first,” be wiling to condemn this injustice. The reason for that silence is as stark as it is sinister, it is a bipartisan failure, and it’s one we must recognize before Israel kills or tortures one more American. Let’s Address This.

Amer Rabee, 14, a US citizen, was shot 11 times and died from his injuries as he picked green almonds in a village in the occupied West Bank, bereaved family and members of the Palestinian community in New Jersey told reporters on Tuesday. His American passport was placed on his lifeless body. [Credit: Facebook Dearborn Area Community Post]

Democratic and Republican politicians are both on record that, “If you harm or kill an American, we will respond.” But apparently, if the “you” in this conversation is the Israeli government or Israeli settlers, that promise to respond no longer applies. So if you’re wondering why the U.S. government is ignoring the Israeli military as it reportedly kidnapped, tortured, and beat U.S. citizen Chris Smalls, I want you to understand one thing—this is not a glitch in American foreign policy.

This is the policy.

Israel has a documented pattern of killing American citizens—many of them children, all of them innocent—and facing no consequences whatsoever. Corporate media often ignores the story, or mentions it in passing and moves on, and the cycle repeats. I wish I were exaggerating, but unfortunately, the receipts paint a devastating picture.

Israel Has Killed These U.S. Citizens Since 2022 Alone—And Faced Zero Consequences:

Ask yourself how many of these nine names you’ve heard, or seen mentioned in any meaningful way on corporate media? Al Jazeera compiled this recent list:

• Omar Assad – Murdered. No one convicted. He was a 78-year-old elder.

• Shireen Abu Akleh – Award-winning journalist. Murdered. No one convicted.

• Tawfiq Ajaq – Murdered. No one convicted. He was a 17-year-old child.

• Mohammed Khdour – Murdered. No one convicted. He was a 17-year-old child.

• Jacob Flickinger – Murdered. No one convicted. A World Central Kitchen worker.

• Aysenur Ezgi Eygi – Murdered. No one convicted. She was only 26.

• Kamel Jawad – Murdered. No one convicted. State Dept tried denying citizenship

• Amer Rabee – Murdered. No one convicted. He was a 14-year-old child.

• Sayfollah Kamel Musallet – Murdered. No one convicted. Beaten to death.

Nine American citizens. Several of them were children. None of them broke any law. All murdered by the Israeli military and by illegal Israeli settlers—none of whom have faced a shred of accountability. These are not isolated incidents. This is a pattern of impunity—a green light handed to Israel by the very government sworn to protect American lives.

And It’s Not Just These Nine

Let’s not forget Rachel Corrie, an American peace activist who was deliberately crushed by an Israeli bulldozer in 2003. Her killer walked free. Or the USS Liberty, a U.S. Navy ship attacked by Israeli forces in 1967, killing 34 American sailors and wounding 171. Israel paid no real consequences. The U.S. swept it under the rug. And this is all but a snapshot of the many more American citizens harassed, tortured, arrested, beaten, and deported, meanwhile their tormentors escape accountability.

You may ask: How can this happen? Surely Democrats will say something? Surely someone will stand up?

They Haven’t. They Won’t.

This week, 20 Democratic Senators joined every single Republican Senator in voting to continue sending weapons to Netanyahu—even as those weapons are being used to carry out what countless legal scholars, the United Nations, and Israel’s own historians have called genocide. These twenty have made clear that no red line exists for them, that no functioning moral compass guides them, and that it is more important to arm a credibly accused war criminal because it appears to benefit their political ambitions, than it is to protect children being starved to death by that credibly accused war criminal. And to reiterate, every Republican joined them.

The 20 Democratic Senators who voted to continue to fund Netanyahu, even as he commits genocide of Palestinians.

I must also take a moment to recognize that 27 Democratic Senators who voted to stop arming Netanyahu’s murderous siege on Gaza. And while I have my valid complaints that many of these Senators have taken way too long to act, this is a step in the right direction, and evidence that ongoing pressure works. Please continue to raise your voices against this genocide, because your advocacy works and matters.

Senators Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wl), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Andy Kim (D-NJ), Angus King (I-ME), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Ben Ray Luján (D- NM), Ed Markey (D-MA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Patty Murray (D-WA), Jon Ossoff (D-GA), Jack Reed (D-RI), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Tina Smith (D-MN), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Raphael Warnock (D-GA), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Peter Welch (D-VT), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI).

So let’s be clear: this is not about partisanship. This is about complicity. And until and unless we pressure our elected officials to demand accountability, it will get worse for all of us. If any other country in the world had kidnapped, tortured, or murdered American citizens with the regularity Israel has, there would be sanctions. There would be hearings. There would be consequences. But when Israel does it? Crickets.

Why do we tolerate this?

In Conclusion: We Must Demand More

Ask yourself, how many of the above nine names you recognize, and why didn’t corporate media keep us aware of these grotesque injustices against our fellow Americans?

This is not about being pro-Palestinian or anti-Israel. This is about being pro-accountability and anti-murder. This is about demanding that the United States defend the rights, safety, and dignity of all its citizens—not just the ones who fit neatly into a political narrative.

Chris Smalls is an American. So were Shireen, Omar, Jacob, and the others. And if we are to be a nation of laws and justice, then their lives must matter, too. Because if Israel can murder Americans and torture labor organizers with impunity—and our leaders not only stay silent but vote to arm their murderers—then it’s not just a foreign policy failure.

It’s a total moral collapse.

We must condemn it. We must name it. And we must demand better—from our government, from our media, and from each other.