Netanyahu again rejects Biden on Palestinian statehood
He enjoyed playing basketball with his friends. He dreamed of studying business to help his family's stores. He enjoyed taking care of his younger siblings and was “very polite, very respectful and very intelligent,” according to the president of his mosque. Then a bullet to his head suddenly ended everything.
A Palestinian-American teenager was killed Friday by a barrage of gunfire in the occupied West Bank. The US State Department confirmed the killing without naming the victim, but the teenager's family identified him as Tawfic Abdel Jabbar, 17 years old. The details of Tawfic's death were unclear, but Israeli police said that the killing involved an off-duty law enforcement officer and an Israeli citizen, and that they were investigating the incident.
Tawfic was born to Palestinian parents and grew up in the suburbs of New Orleans. His grandfather had come to America “in search of the American dream,” said Sherean Murad, the associate director of the Muslim Academy in Gretna, who taught Tawfic citizenship when he was in the 11th grade.
Tawfic and his family had temporarily moved to the West Bank in May to connect with relatives. He hoped to improve his Arabic while there and planned to return to the United States to study.
News of his death left friends and relatives in Louisiana in disbelief.
“We are furious as a community because it is so senseless,” Ms Murad said.
Tawfic's second cousin, Mohammad Abdelwahhab, a medical assistant in New Orleans, was still trying to process the news on Saturday.
“It was a shock,” said Mr Abdelwahhab, 21. He added: “This is a shock to the whole family, the community and everyone with a heart that knows him.”
“He is so young,” Mr Abdelwahhab said, adding: “He was about to celebrate and complete his graduation and he was going to continue with his goals.”
On Saturday, large groups of friends and relatives gathered to mourn. During the day, an open house was held at Tawfic's uncle's home, where children and women shared memories of the teenager over strong cups of coffee, dates and plates of yellow rice and lamb. In the backyard, men, young and old, gathered to eat and celebrate Tawfic's life.
Tawfik Abdeljabar, 23, a close cousin with the same name but a different spelling, said he and Tawfic had felt like twins. “We joked about who got the better name. I would say K was better, and he would say C,” Mr Abdeljabar said.
Another cousin, Zarifa Abdeljabar, 22, recalled memories of the two of them in the West Bank, especially when they went out for iced coffee and enjoyed the tranquility of the mountains.
Because Tawfic was killed in a religious conflict, he is considered a martyr, Ms. Abdeljabar said. “A warrior of God,” she called him.
In the evening, a vigil was held for the men of Masjid Omar, the mosque in Harvey, La., where Tawfic was present. There were hundreds of people, many wearing the Palestinian kaffiyeh scarf.
In an interview with The New York Times, Nabil Abukhader, the president of Masjid Omar, urged the Biden administration to do more to “fight for our rights as Americans.”
“It is important that we protect our children from this murder cycle,” he said.
Some relatives missed the Saturday gatherings, including two of Tawfic's uncles and his older brother, who flew to the West Bank as soon as they heard the news.
One of his cousins was in deep mourning when she went into labor on Friday and gave birth to a baby boy.
She named him Tawfic, with a C.
Gaya Gupta, Roni Caryn Rabin, Rami Nazzal And Anushka Patil reporting contributed.