Shadi Khoury
Facing imprisonment beginning March 29, 2026.
Please help get this urgent message out!
What happened
Shadi Khoury, the grandson of Nakba survivor and eminent Palestinian voice Samia Khoury, is on the verge of being locked up in an Israeli prison again.
He was first taken into custody at 16 – an 11th grader at a Quaker school in Ramallah – when Israeli forces abducted him in the middle of the night, beat him savagely, broke his nose, knocked him unconscious multiple times, and insulted him as “the Christian.”
His so-called crime was being accused of participating in a protest and damaging an Israeli car. Shadi fervently denies any wrongdoing and the evidence against him was the testimony of terrified children like a 15-year-old who later testified in court that he was beaten and coerced into giving false testimony against Shadi.
The Broader Context
Every year, some 500-700 Palestinian children, sometimes as young as 12, are detained through Israeli military courts.
Human rights organizations have documented appalling torture and abuse of prisoners, including children. Just last year, a teen died in an Israeli prison.
The most common charge against these youngsters is throwing stones at occupation soldiers. Often even this mild charge is untrue.
The Urgent Deadline
On March 29th Shadi is required to hand himself over to Israeli prison authorities to begin serving a sentence of two years and eight months.
If enough people speak out and contact their congressional representatives day after day, there is a chance we can stop this — a raise awareness of the hundreds of other Palestinian children currently being brutalized in Israeli prisons through the use of the billions of U.S. tax dollars our politicians give Israel.
Further Reading
Update on the arrest of Shadi Khoury, grandson of Samia Khoury
Shadi Khoury, age 15, is part of a beloved and influential Christian family in Jerusalem. That did not stop Israeli police from arresting him on false charges and beating him bloody last October.
Bloodstains & Destruction: Israeli soldiers’ beating of Shadi Khoury
Everyone was asleep. Israeli police pounded on the door, entered violently, beat a child who refused to undress in front of them. They took him, blindfolded and barefoot, to be interrogated for days or longer…
Help end the injustice against Shadi
Shadi is an innocent teenager from a prominent Palestinian Christian family, about to be sent to prison in Israel – unless enough people make enough noise, demanding his release.
Why Israel persecutes children like my son Shadi
Accused of attending a protest, Shadi has never confessed to any wrongdoing and endured 41 court sessions spanning three years of legal persecution, epitomizing a system that instrumentalizes law as a tool of political repression.
Israeli guards called him “the Christian” to insult him, then beat him some more
Israeli police burst into his home, broke his nose and a tooth, then dragged him by force, bound and blindfolded, to their van. After 41 days of beatings in an Israeli prison, 16-year-old Shadi Khoury is finally released to house arrest