Father of Palestinian American teen killed in West Bank discusses son’s death

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• Amna Nawaz:

  The New Orleans community is mourning the loss of a Palestinian-American teenager killed in the West Bank last month; 17-year-old Tawfic Abdel Jabbar is one of the 94 children among the 370 Palestinians killed in clashes on the West Bank since October 7, according to the United Nations.

  In late January, over 100 cars formed a motorcade in his memory along a New Orleans highway.

  I spoke with his father, Hafeth Abdel Jabbar, earlier this week from the West Bank, and I asked him what happened to his son.

  Hafeth Abdel Jabbar, Father of Tawfic Abdel Jabbar: What I know and what happened is, my son was traveling from one piece of property to another piece of property with a friend. Me — and with other friends, so they can do a barbecue.

  And as he was traveling, he was, I think, ambushed by a settler, retired police officer, a soldier. We're not sure. There was three different weapons used. The truck was hit with 10 bullets, four of them, is very clear, to the driver's side, and two of them to the passenger side.

  But, luckily, and thanks God, the passenger had ducked, and he's 16 years old also. He's an American citizen. And he was traveling towards the village on a dirt road from the mountain. And that's when he was struck and lost control of the car and flipped three times or four times, and it came to stop.

• Amna Nawaz:

  How did you learn that your son had been killed?

• Hafeth Abdel Jabbar:

  One of my friends called me and said, your son's truck had flipped on the dirt road. And I said, where? And he told me where.

  So we rushed over there. And that's how I find my son in the car shot in the head.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Israeli officials say that they have launched an investigation. Are they sharing any of that investigation and the findings with you?

• Hafeth Abdel Jabbar:

  They have not shared anything with me personally, no. They said they did, but they have not shared. They know who did it. They said, they have made comments to me that they know who did it, but he's not under arrest until they finish their investigation.

  I'm not sure why.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Do you trust the results of the investigation when they will be complete?

• Hafeth Abdel Jabbar:

  I cannot trust them, no. I won't trust anything that they do.

  I hope my government can step in and do their own investigation, so we can come to conclusion who shot my son.

• Amna Nawaz:

  When you say your government, you're referring to the American government; is that right?

• Hafeth Abdel Jabbar:

  Yes, ma'am. I'm an American citizen, been there since 1996. Five of my kids was born in the U.S. in Gretna, Louisiana. My wife is an American citizen, so my government is the American.

  My son was born and raised for 16 years in Gretna, Louisiana. So, I'm seeking help from my government, from my president, to seek justice for Tawfic.

• Amna Nawaz:

  You moved your family to the West Bank in May of last year. Tell us a little bit about why.

• Hafeth Abdel Jabbar:

  Well, I was born here in Palestine in Al Mazra'a Sharqiya about 25 miles away from Jerusalem. My dad was born here. His dad was born here, the whole family. I can go back to 1870, 1880s.

  And I wanted to bring my kids, so they can spend a little bit of time here. But this is what happened in the first nine months. I have only been here for nine months.

• Amna Nawaz:

  You mentioned you're seeking help from the U.S. government. Can you tell us about who you have been in touch with, who has reached out to you or what you have heard from the American government?

• Hafeth Abdel Jabbar:

  I have just been getting calls from the consulate here. I'm trying to reach to senators, congressmen, trying to put pressure on the Israeli government to allow us to do an investigation to see who did that to my son.

  All I have seen is just a comment from the White House speaker, I guess. And that was it. I haven't seen anything yet. There's no movement.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Can I ask about your family? I know Tawfic has several siblings as well. How are they doing?

• Hafeth Abdel Jabbar:

  It's a bit tough for my wife. I have two daughters, 8 and 6 years old. And I have a 12-years-old boy and a 21-years-old boy.

  It's a bit tough. My 8-years-old, she kept asking me: "I don't understand what happened to him." So I kept telling her what happened. And then the light — when you're trying to explain to her that he's in heaven, she still says: "I just don't understand. Can you explain it to me?"

  I don't know the answer to that.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Hafeth, my colleague Roby Chavez has been reporting on your son's death from New Orleans. And he spoke to the vice principal of his school there, who said that Tawfic was larger than life. And he called him a big teddy bear and said that the school was absolutely reeling after his death.

  What do you want us to know about your son?

• Hafeth Abdel Jabbar:

  My son was full of life, 17 years old, always happy and smart, never say anything to hurt anybody's feeling, no matter who it is, no matter what color he is, no matter what religion he is.

  He plays football. He's full of life. He went to Muslim Academy schools. He went to Christian Brother Martin school. He had dreams of engineering. They took all that away from him.

• Amna Nawaz:

  What does justice look like for you right now?

• Hafeth Abdel Jabbar:

  There's no justice. I think we lost human — humanity.

  My government, my president, we claim democracy. We claim human rights, and we claim that nothing should be done against humanity. And now our own guns is killing our own children. And my son, it's a big example. And it shouldn't be — it shouldn't matter if he's American citizen, or he's from Mexico, or he's Latin, or he's Chinese, or he's white, or Jewish, or Muslim, or — children shouldn't be killed.

  People shouldn't be killed for no reason, like my son did.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Thank you so much for your time and for joining us and for sharing the memory of your son. Thank you.

• Hafeth Abdel Jabbar:

  Thank you.

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