Father of American Teen Killed in West Bank Slams U.S. Support of Israel

The father of a 17-year-old American killed by Israeli violence in the West Bank spoke out against U.S. military and financial support of Israel on Saturday. Family and other mourners filled the streets of their small Palestinian village as they gathered for the teen’s funeral, the Associated Press reported.

“They are killer machines,” Hafez Ajaq told the crowd at the funeral, speaking of the Israeli forces whose bullets took his son’s life. “They are using our tax dollars in the U.S. to support the weapons to kill our own children.”

Louisiana native Tawfiq Ajaq was fatally shot on Friday in a village field, with bullet wounds to the head and chest. A relative who rushed to the scene said that Israeli forces detained him and other Palestinians who attempted to help the young Ajaq, asking for IDs and delaying their response to young man. The teenager died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital.

Read more at The Daily Beast.