This petition is deeply personal to my 6 sisters and 2 brothers who recently lost one of our nephew's in Jerusalem and would like to get his body back to give him a proper burial. 

Khaled Muhtaseb, son of Abed Fattah Muhtaseb and Amani Abu Zeineh, was a 21 year old Palestinian student at Bethlehem University in Jerusalem. He was studying Hotel Management and dreamed of working in the hospitality industry after he graduated and eventually being able to afford the car of his dreams. He is our sister's youngest son, his sister Dana's soulmate and the apple of our eye. To say that we are all heartbroken is an understatement. 

On Thursday, October 12th, Khaled left his home in the early evening to get fresh air after the events of the past few days. He got caught up in an altercation with the Israeli police which resulted in him getting shot and losing his life. 

Students at Bethlehem University are speechless. "He was a friend and a brother. We loved him. He was a loyal, reliable and trustworthy friend." Through tears they say "his name will always be around us at the university, he will always be in our hearts."

It is not enough that we have lost a beautiful young soul which was so full of hopes and dreams but his body was taken and has not been released to the family for burial. We are left in unbearable grief and unable to bury our boy due to the authorities withholding his body.

To make matters worse, we 7 sisters live in different parts of the world. We wish more than anything to be by our sister Amani's side but geography does not allow us to do that. It is why we have started this petition to get our nephew's body back. It is the least we can do from our current home countries in USA, UK, Jordan and in other parts like Gaza, the West Bank. 

We call upon those responsible for this heartbreaking situation to please release our nephew's body so we can give him a dignified burial and have some measure of closure.

Please sign this petition today; let us stand together and beg for his body to be released.