Palestinian Americans in Connecticut are calling for justice for a young man reportedly killed by settlers in the West Bank earlier this month and a prohibition on sending U.S. rifles that have armed those settlers.
On Wednesday, Kemal Musallet, the father of Sayfollah Musallet, a 20-year old Florida man who was killed when he was beaten to death by Israeli settlers on July 11, urged U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy to continue to push for a U.S. independent investigation.
“This isn’t just about Sayfollah,” said Musallet in a meeting with Bockenfeld, according to a transcript from the meeting. “I can’t get my son back. But I want to make sure no other father has to bury his child. I want this settler violence to stop completely. These are our lands. We have the right to be here. And we have the right to live without fear of being killed for simply existing.”
Further, Musallet and the Connecticut Council on American and Islamic Relations, asked the senator to publicly support two joint resolutions introduced by U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-VT, which would block “the transfer of thousands of U.S. made automatic rifles to Israeli police forces, which risk being used by armed settlers to commit further human rights violations,” according to a release from CAIR.
Sanders’ office said in a release that “the rifles in question will go to arm a police force overseen by Itamar Ben-Gvir, who advocates for the forcible expulsion of Palestinians from the region, who has been convicted of support for terrorism by an Israeli court, and who has distributed weapons to violent settlers in the West Bank.”
Patrick Barham Quesada, press secretary for Sanders, confirmed in an email to the Courant that a vote on S.J. Res 34 and S.J. Res 41 was expected Wednesday night in the U.S. Senate.
The resolutions would block offensive arms sales “in light of the daily civilian massacres and unfolding famine created by the Netanyahu government’s policies,” according to Sanders’ office.
Israel has come under mounting international pressure in recent days as its ongoing military offensive and blockade have led to the “worst-case scenario of famine” in the coastal territory of some 2 million Palestinians, according to the leading international authority on hunger crises.
Deni Kamper, communications director for Murphy, said in an email Wednesday that she did not have anything to share about Sanders’ joint resolutions at this time.
Farhan Memon, chairman of CAIR-CT, said in a statement, “It is the responsibility of our government to protect American lives and values, not subsidize weapons for their killers.
“Senator Murphy can and should lead the charge,” Memon said.
There are 250 families in the Hartford area that are from Al-mazra’a ash-Sharqiya, the same village where Sayfollah Musallet was killed.
Youness Bakr is a distant relative of Sayfollah Musallet who lives in Connecticut. He said he shares the views of many other families who are concerned about traveling back to the West Bank since Musallet and six other Americans were killed.
They often plan summer trips there but have decided not to go at this time.
“We feel it personally,” he told the Courant. “It is shocking to us because it is now brought home to us and it is happening on our land. The settlers are encroaching on the village because they have complete impunity from the Israeli government. The families are worried their children could be next.”
He said he felt anger at what was happening and at what he referred to as the “government’s complicity.”
Kemal Musallet described his son as a “loving kid.
“I say kid even though he was 20 because to me, he’ll always be my kid,” he told Bockenfeld, according to the transcript. “He wanted to be like me. I’m a businessman and he was excited about life. He had just opened up an ice cream shop and he was really proud of it.”
He said his son, who was from Florida, came back to the West Bank to visit his mother, brothers and sister.
He recounted the events when he learned of his son’s death telling Bockenfeld that when he came back to the U.S. he started getting a bunch of missed calls early in the morning followed by messages in a WhatsApp group saying an incident had occurred.
“But no one would tell me exactly what was going on,” he said. “They kept saying he was unconscious, having trouble breathing.”
Finally, he learned the details saying that an “ambulance wasn’t allowed to reach them for nearly three hours because the Israeli army wouldn’t give permission.
“When they finally did, it still couldn’t drive all the way in, so they had to carry him on a stretcher,” he said. “By the time they got there it was too late. His brother had told me he already passed. There wasn’t enough oxygen getting to his brain and heart.”
Murphy signed onto a letter with 28 other senators on July 24 calling for “a credible and independent investigation into (Musallet’s) death.”
Musallet’s killing is the seventh American citizen killed in the West Bank since July 2022, the letter stated.
“It is long past time for the U.S. government to demand accountability in these killings of Americans,” the letter said.
The letter went on to state: “Following the Trump Administration’s sudden revocation of all U.S. sanctions against extremist settlers in the West Bank, the first five months of 2025 have seen the highest rate of settler attacks in years and the killing of another America. We urge you to pursue a different approach.”
Murphy said in a statement after Musallet’s killing that it was “an appalling crime.”
“The Netanyahu government must thoroughly investigate and hold accountable the settlers responsible for allegedly beating this young man to death,” he said. “The incident occurred amid an almost complete breakdown of law and order in the territory, allowing extremist settler groups to drive Palestinians off their land at an alarming rate as part of an organized strategy to remake the territorial map by force.”
The Musallet family and CAIR have asked for the reinstatement and expansion of U.S. sanctions “against violent settlers and extremist settler organizations.”
Still, Musallet and relatives of the other Palestinian-Americans say they doubt anyone will be held accountable, either by Israel or the U.S. They believe the first word in their hyphenated identity undercuts the power of the second. And they say Israel and its law enforcement have made them feel like culprits — by imposing travel bans and, in some cases, detaining and interrogating them.
Although the Trump administration has stopped short of promising investigations of its own, the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem has urged Israel to investigate the circumstances of each American’s death.
