Three Palestinian college students were the target of a violent attack while walking in Vermont over Thanksgiving weekend. Hisham Awartani, one of the victims, is now paralyzed from the chest down due to a bullet lodged in his spine. His family has launched a GoFundMe fundraiser to support him as he faces a challenging recovery. The attacked men were all wearing traditional Palestinian scarves known as keffiyehs at the time, and are currently recovering from gunshot wounds. The suspect Jason J. Eaton, 48, who has pleaded not guilty to three counts of attempted murder, is currently in custody.
The victims’ families and civil rights groups are calling for the incident to be treated as a hate crime, amid a reported rise in anti-Muslim and anti-Arab bias incidents in the United States. Federal prosecutors in Vermont are also investigating whether the shooting may have been a hate crime.
The families of the students, universities they attend, and the broader community have shown strong support for the trio. A group has also promised to fund rehabilitation care in case the full amount raised by the GoFundMe isn’t needed. In a text from Hisham shared during a vigil, he remarked that “this hideous crime did not happen in a vacuum” in an effort to raise broader awareness of the situation.
