Calls for probe of Israeli attack on Palestinian American

Rights advocates are calling for a probe into the Israeli attack on a Palestinian American from Tennessee following video footage of him being overtaken by Israeli soldiers as he was reportedly filming attacks on other Palestinians.

The incident occurred Tuesday on a public street in the West Bank village of Turmusayya, as an onlooker filmed the man from a building above as he was being forced into a police vehicle while screaming that the soldiers were breaking his arm.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, whom the man's family contacted with the video, urges the Biden administration to investigate the soldiers' attack on the Palestinian American, who remains in custody.

"It would be unacceptable for our nation to tolerate the violent assault of any Palestinians by soldiers of a foreign nation funded by American taxpayer dollars. It would be even worse if we do nothing to protect Palestinian-Americans who experience such violence on camera," said CAIR's national executive director Nihad Awad, himself of Palestinian heritage, said in a public statement.

"Both the FBI and the State Department should conduct a transparent investigation and call for concrete actions to protect American citizens," he continued, adding that he had also received a recent report of a Palestinian from California being attacked by Israeli forces.

CAIR's deputy director Edward Ahmed Mitchell told The New Arab, "I would say that Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right government are out of control. They're abusing Palestinians because they think they can get away with it. That's why it's so important for Biden to take concrete steps to condemn what's happening."