More than 100 American civil rights and advocacy organisations have issued an urgent appeal to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, demanding immediate intervention to secure the freedom of Sama Safi. Safi, a 20-year-old Palestinian-American psychology student, has been held captive by the Israeli occupation for over two months.
Criminalising Resistance
The occupation forces abducted Safi from her family home in Birzeit, north of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, on June 2. The regime’s military courts have charged her with membership in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)—a legitimate Palestinian resistance faction that the occupiers criminalise under the guise of “anti-terrorism.” Safi vehemently denies the fabricated allegations, her lawyer Leah Tsemel confirmed to AFP.
Medical Neglect and Abuse in Damon Prison
Safi is currently being held in the notorious Damon Prison in northern occupied Palestine. The facility houses more than 90 Palestinian women detainees, including minors and expectant mothers, who are subjected to systemic dehumanisation. In a letter circulated by advocacy groups, Safi described her ordeal: “During my detention, I was repeatedly subjected to verbal abuse... I was blindfolded, and my hands were shackled.”
Compounding her suffering, Safi battles a chronic health condition that requires specialised, regular treatment in Rome. While the occupation authorities have twice permitted her to leave the prison for medical care, her legal team is now demanding her immediate release on bail, with a court response expected in the coming days.
Washington’s Selective Outrage
The renewed spotlight on Safi’s case arrives amid broader international outrage over the siege of another Palestinian-American, Louai Abu Ridi, whose home in the West Bank village of Qusra was recently besieged by violent Zionist settlers.
Despite the State Department’s standard performative rhetoric about “taking its commitment to protecting US citizens abroad seriously,” Washington remains predictably muted when those citizens are victimised by its closest strategic proxy in West Asia. While US politicians champion “hostage diplomacy” when it serves their geopolitical interests, a US citizen currently enduring mistreatment in a Zionist prison fails to elicit the same urgency from the foreign policy establishment.
A Broader Epidemic of Torture
Safi is just one of an estimated 9,500 Palestinian political prisoners languishing in occupation dungeons. Conditions in these facilities have grown increasingly barbaric since the onset of the genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023. Independent watchdogs and international NGOs have documented widespread systemic abuse, torture, and starvation. Just this week, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club warned that at least 10 female detainees at Damon Prison have contracted scabies due to the regime’s deliberately unsanitary conditions.
As US organisations ramp up the pressure on Secretary Rubio, the case of Sama Safi stands as a stark testament to the brutality of the Zionist occupation—and a reminder that for Washington, “human rights” remain entirely conditional.
Reference: Al-Mayadeen