Community organizers want to remember Saif Musallet, hope politicians will get off the fence.
By Johannes Werner
Original Air Date: July 16, 2025
Host: Saif Musallet was killed while visiting family in the West Bank. The 20-year old U.S. citizen grew up in Port Charlotte and ran an ice cream shop in Tampa’s Temple Terrace. Community organizers are preparing a protest in Tampa on Friday and a vigil on Saturday, and we talked to them.
Johannes Werner: Saif was beaten and killed by Israeli settlers while camping on family land that settlers were about to occupy, according to Palestinian authorities. For three hours, the mob blocked access for paramedics to the site and an injured Saif.
Sayfollah Musallet
His death has made political ripples here and caused an international incident. The Trump-appointed U.S. ambassador in Israel—Mike Huckabee—has asked Israeli authorities to aggressively investigate the death.
On Monday, CAIR—the American Muslim civil rights organization—held a press conference with Saif’s grieving family in Tampa.
The same day, Gov. Ron DeSantis declined to comment on Saif Musallet’s death. Asked by a Herald-Tribune reporter during an event Monday on the campus of New College, the governor said he had no information on the case.
More action is afoot now.
This Saturday, the Florida chapter of CAIR will host a vigil at a Tampa mosque. This is an event that should bring together Floridians of all walks of life, says Hiba Rahim, deputy executive director of CAIR Florida.
Hiba Rahim: Obviously, the family is grieving incredibly after the loss of their family member—their son, their nephew, their cousin. And it’s not just a loss or a death. It is the brutal, brutal beating to death of a young 20-year-old Tampa resident—Tampa business owner—an ice cream shop owner—U.S. citizen—in the occupied territories of the West Bank by Israeli settlers. So we are bringing the community together in memory of a young Palestinian-American who went overseas and, in the process of being there, understood that the Israeli settlers were threatening to take some of their land, so they were camping out and staying on their land to protect it from illegal occupation. And instead of the illegal settlers taking their land, they took his life. Why we’re stepping in to help and why we’re calling on the Muslim community, the non-Muslim community, all faiths, interfaith, non-faith, friends and allies, all welcome to come and grieve together and to say, “That’s enough. It’s enough.”
JW: The vigil will begin at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Islamic Community of Tampa, 5910 East 130th Ave. Rahim hopes the death will get fence-sitting politicians off the fence.
HR: There are some elected officials who are afraid to speak out. There is a fear of standing up and speaking out against Israeli atrocities and against the injustices that are happening there. Some of it is because of funding that they receive from pro-Israeli lobby groups. And I’m just going to be frank about it. There are different reasons. People fear for their political career. But that time is passing. I won’t say it’s past yet, but it is passing, and there is a social awareness that is unprecedented. There is a dissatisfaction with the way Israel is behaving in Gaza and in Palestine.
JW: A day before the vigil – on Friday – Lama Alhasan with Dream Defenders is helping organize a protest for Saif not far from Tampa’s Temple Terrace, which is home to Saif, and one of the biggest Palestinian communities in Florida. She wants Saif Musallet to be remembered as a human being.
Lama Alhasan: For me, on a personal level, as a Palestinian, I feel this extremely deeply. Even though I’ve never met Sayfollah, I’ve never met Muhammad, I feel the pain of every single Palestinian life that is taken. Saif himself and a lot of family members here have built a huge community. He himself is an owner of a successful ice cream shop in the Temple Terrace area. I know that he is a kind soul and that he, apparently, is a jokester. I got to hear a little bit of stories from his cousins and friends. They were talking about how Saif always lightened up the mood with his humor.
JW: The protest begins Friday, 6 p.m. at Oak Ramble Plaza, 14905 Bruce B. Downs Blvd. in Tampa, north of the USF campus.
Alhasan sees it as a way for people in Florida to connect abuses committed against immigrants in the Everglades and the plight of Palestinians.
“What’s happening in the Everglades is not too far removed from what’s happening in Palestine,” she says. She hopes protests like this will bring people together to organize.
Reporting for WSLR News, Johannes Werner.
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