Palestinian American woman held without charge by Israeli military

A 20-year-old Palestinian American woman has been held in Israeli military detention for nearly two weeks after Israeli soldiers stormed her family home in a pre-dawn raid on 2 June.

Sama Safi, a psychology student at Birzeit University in the occupied West Bank, has not been charged with any crimes. A spokesperson for the Israeli military said she and three other women detained around the same time were arrested “after promoting hostile terrorist activity and additional terrorist-related activities”.

Several US legislators have called for Safi’s release and her family has warned that she has a chronic medical condition that requires regular treatment.

One of the other detained Birzeit University students is a member of the Palestinian women’s national soccer team; another player from the team was also detained before being released earlier this week. The four students are being held at an Israeli detention and interrogation center in Jerusalem notorious for its record of abuse.

Safi’s attorney, the Israeli human rights lawyer Lea Tsemel, said that the students appeared to have been targeted after two other students – who were themselves detained at the time – provided the Israeli military with dozens of names of people allegedly involved in an activist student organization called Qutub. Israel says the group is affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which it has designated a terror organization.

Tsemel says her client denies being involved with the student group – but also says the group itself is not illegal. “I don’t know how this information was extorted from them, probably by force,” Tsemel said of the students who allegedly provided the names. “It’s nonsense.” Her next hearing is scheduled for Sunday.

Tsemel visited Safi in detention this week, where she said she found her in relatively good spirits because “she knows she didn’t do anything”. But she noted that the treatment of Palestinians held over allegations that they pose a security threat –including thousands who are held with no charges under so-called “administrative detention” – has grown harsher since 7 October 2023. Journalists and human rights groups have documented widespread abuses of Palestinians in Israeli detention, including sexual abuse and beatings.

Safi grew up in Palestine but frequently visited her extended family in Florida, where her mother grew up. Relatives said she suffers from a chronic autoinflammatory disease that can cause debilitating fevers and pain and she had only recently begun to regain her health after being bedridden for months thanks to daily medication and regular treatment abroad. Her family said that she was receiving some medication in detention, but not enough and not the right kind to properly treat her condition.

Earlier this week, a representative of the US embassy in Jerusalem visited Safi in detention where, he also told the family, she appeared to be “in good spirits”. He reported that she was receiving “sufficient food” though she described it as “prison food”.