Sayfollah Musallet, a U.S. citizen from Tampa, Florida, was just weeks away from celebrating his 21st birthday when he was killed while visiting family in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. He was beaten to death by Israeli settlers during a confrontation between groups of Palestinians and Israelis, Palestinian officials say.
Eyewitnesses and local Palestinian authorities say Israeli military officers and settlers prevented help from reaching Musallet, resulting in his death. Musallet is among the nearly 1,000 Palestinians who have been killed by Israeli soldiers and settlers in the occupied West Bank since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks, according to the United Nations.
His father, Kamel Musallet, said the last phone call they shared was about looking to the future.
“It was about him living life even more, wanting to get married, wanting to start a family,” Kamel said. “And that was the last phone call that I had with him. I didn’t talk to him after that.”
5 questions with Kamel Musallet
Tell us about Sayfollah (Saif). What was he like?
“Saif was a loving child — had a lot of respect for his father, had a lot of respect for his mother. Everyone liked him. He was the most loved one between all of his friends. They told me he was the one that made them laugh. He was the one that, when everybody was feeling down, he would just start joking around with them and cheering them up. He was running an ice cream shop in Tampa, scooping ice cream to kids, to family members. I looked at the reviews, and they would say the customer service is just what’s keeping the people coming back. A few times, they would write his name on the Google reviews. Like they would mention, ‘Saif was an awesome employee that helped us tremendously,’ and he would brag about it to me like, ‘Dad, Dad, look, they put my name on it.’”
How did you hear about your son’s killing? Walk us through that moment and what you learned about the situation.
“We have a group message for our town, where I live, Mazra’a ash-Sharqiya, Ramallah. A lot of us have land in the area that they were at. The settlers have been doing a lot of violence there, Israeli settlers. Every week, groups of Palestinians from our village, from surrounding villages, they go there. They show their presence, showing that these are our lands, you’re not allowed to steal our lands. And that’s the area that Israeli settlers are trying to take over. So they were there.
“On the group message, it says that some of the kids have been brutally beaten. Then they mentioned my son. It was hard, but you always think that he’s not the worst case, you know, like you think, ‘okay, maybe he was hit,’ something small. Then the news started getting more, that he needs help. He needs paramedics. He needs an ambulance. And my other son, who’s 18 years old, called me up. He said, ‘Dad, Sayfollah’s pretty bad, but we can’t get to him. They’re not permitting an ambulance to get to him.’ They finally were able to get to him, but it was after two and a half hours. The ambulance came. Finally, the paramedics came. So they took down the stretcher from the ambulance. Then they walked with him all the way to the ambulance. But my son said that he took his last breath even before he got into the ambulance.”
Who do you hold accountable for your son’s death?
“I hold three parties [accountable]. I hold the Israeli army [accountable] for not allowing the medical assistance because I honestly believe if they reached them in time, he would be alive. I also blame Israeli settler terrorism, Israeli settler extremism. [And] I blame the U.S. government for not putting enough pressure on the Israeli government for preventing this Israeli extremism — sanctions were given to Israeli settlers, and then they were lifted from them. They need to put international pressure, U.S. pressure, any pressure on the Israeli settlers to stop trying to steal Palestinian land.”
When asked for comment on your son’s death, press for the Israeli Defense Forces sent us the following: “Following the incident, a joint investigation was launched by the Israel Police and the Military Police Criminal Investigation Division.” We have also seen that the U.S. ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, has called on Israeli authorities to “aggressively investigate” the death of your son, calling Saif’s killing a “murder” and a “criminal and terrorist act.” Has anyone from the State Department or the Trump administration or any Israeli authorities reached out to you in the days since your son’s killing?
“The consulate called the first day and they told me they would get back to me in a few days. Yesterday, [Mike] Huckabee contacted me and he told me that he wants the Israeli authorities to start an investigation. But to be honest, I don’t trust their investigation. They prolong the investigation, and then it kind of fades away, and then everyone forgets about it. We want a better investigation. We want maybe the U.S. to interfere with the investigation. He’s a U.S. citizen. Trump says America first — so put the Americans first.”
What does justice look like for you?
“I’m just asking for the Israeli settler terrorism, the Israeli settler extremism to stop. The U.S. government needs to put pressure on these settlers to stop terrorizing. And that would be enough for me. That would be an accomplishment. I would feel that my son’s blood didn’t go to vain.
“I told [Huckabee] that you need to put pressure on them. He said he would. So, hopefully, from this U.S. pressure, it will completely stop at all of the West Bank. That’s what I’m hoping for.
“I can’t get my son back. He’s buried in the ground. No father needs to bury their son. I just don’t want any other fathers to bury their sons.”
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
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Hafsa Quraishi produced and edited this interview for broadcast with Michael Scotto. Quraishi also adapted it for the web.
This article was originally published on WBUR.org.
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