I learned about the story of Bilal Rawajbi through an article in Mondoweiss written by Jessica Buxbaum, a freelance journalist based in Jerusalem covering Palestine and the Israeli occupation in February 2022. That was 18 months after he was shot by the IOF at an Israeli military checkpoint outside Nablus.  So, it is safe to assume that Israeli citizens and the rest of the world may have never heard about the dilemma of Bilal Rawajbi, his family, his parents, his wife, and their infant girl, only three months of age, Joana. I know one thing for sure. Had Bilal been a Jew, his story would have hit the headlines of every news agency around the world and his name would have become a household name.

 

The story of Bilal, who works as a legal consultant for the Palestinian Preventive Security Forces, began shortly over three years ago when he was driving to work through the Huwara military checkpoint outside Nablus when he was stopped and shot at by the Israeli army. Bilal was severely injured and an Israeli army helicopter came and picked him up and transferred him to an unknown location.

 

 The day after, Israeli military officials notified Bilal's family that he was injured. Then the IOF phoned the family to tell him he was dead. Then the agent called to tell the family that Bilal was injured and in prison. It has been now just over three years and Bilal's family has not heard anything whatsoever about him. The family is now wondering whether Bilal is a martyr or a prisoner. His name does not appear on the lists of either Palestinian martyrs or prisoners. So, his family launched an international campaign with #WhereIsBilal?. However, according to Israel-Palestine Timeline, the Maan News Agency published a photo from the incident showing the Palestinian still in the driver seat when he was shot by the soldiers who fired a barrage of live rounds at him. Several shots fired by the soldiers could be heard in a video captured by a Palestinian while waiting in a car near the roadblock. As always with the case, the IOF is notorious for fabricating stories to cover its crimes against Palestinians. The IOF issued a brief and a typical statement, "The Israeli army said its soldiers foiled what it described as 'an attempted shooting attack' by 'neutralizing the attacker,' and added that no soldiers were hurt." In addition, the Israeli daily Haaretz quoted the army claiming the Palestinian fired two shots at the soldiers before they fired back and killed him. We all knew the idiomatic expression: "Fish swim, birds fly, and Israelis lie." After Israel laid to rest three members of the Bibas family who were killed by the Israeli bombing of Gaza and who remained were turned over by Hamas 10 days ago, the Rawajbi family are unable to pay proper respect for their beloved son or provide his with a proper burial. Under the latest ceasefire agreement with Hamas, the only democracy in the Middle East is legally and morally responsible for the safety return of Bilal's body. That begs the question, if Bilal is alive, where is he, and if he was dead, where is his body?  "Where is Bilal?" Shamefully, not much was said by Bilal by WAFA (the official Palestinian news agency and is directly affiliated with the Palestinian Authority) whose mission is aimed to offer the Palestinian viewpoint to Arabic, Hebrew, and English audiences. Bilal was employed by the PA, but the PA officials who maintain security corporation with the Israeli occupation since the Oslo agreement in 1993 has failed to address or intercede on behalf of Bilal. The same goes for Palestinian radio station Jerusalem 24, which also broadcasts to Hebrew and English audiences and failed to highlight the story of Bial. Both Palestinian media outlets should have demanded of Israel loud and clear, "Where is Bilal?" According to Jessica Buxbaum, Bilal's family who has stated that Bilal was not wanted by the IOF, has reached out to the Palestinian Authority, the U.S. government, the United Nations, and international and local humanitarian organizations in a desperate attempt to find Bilal Rawajbi, but these efforts were to no avail.  The only logical explanation is that Bilal was killed, and the Israeli army later transferred his body to a butcher's lab in Israel to harvest his organs to be sold for profit on the black market. If Americans Knew group published an explosive investigative report on March 1, 2025, titled, "A brief history of Israel’s theft and trafficking of Palestinian organs." It reveals that there are over three decades of evidence that Israeli doctors have harvested Palestinian organs in direct violation of international law. These stolen body parts were not just used for transplantation and research but for sale and profit. It is worth noting here that it has also been documented in both Palestinian and Israeli media and in court proceedings that the Israeli Occupation Forces operates a Palestinian butchery at Abu Kabir in Tel Aviv. The IOF routinely kidnaps Palestinians at checkpoints, raids, and hospital wards or exhume from cemeteries in order to harvest their organs for profit inside and outside Israel, all without the family's knowledge. Under international law, this act of secretly harvesting Palestinian organs is a war crime. Mahmoud El-Yousseph is a Palestinian freelancer for Islamicity.com and ColumbusFreepress.com. He can be reached at elyousseph6@yahoo.com.