Nadine Osman
One of three Palestinian-American college students who were shot in an unprovoked attack in Burlington, Vermont, last month is paralysed from the chest down.
Hisham Awartani, 20, was walking with two childhood friends of the same age when a white middle-aged man approached them with a gun and shot all three. Awartani, Kinnan Abdalhamid, and Tahseen Ali Ahmad, were fortunate to survive, but Awartani may face permanent paralysis in his legs owing to a bullet lodged in his spine, his family stated in a GoFundMe page set up on December 2 to help with his medical expenses.
Relatives believe the young men were deliberately targeted because of their Palestinian background. They were speaking a mix of English and Arabic at the time they were shot, and two were wearing keffiyehs, traditional Palestinian scarves. The FBI and Vermont authorities are also investigating whether the shooting was a hate crime.
“He has demonstrated remarkable courage, resilience, and fortitude—even a sense of humour — even as the reality of his paralysis sets in,” his family wrote on the GoFundMe page.
“The family is committed to his recovery and remains hopeful, despite the grave prognosis,” they added. As of December 6, the total amount raised had surpassed $1.1 million (£900,000). Jason J. Eaton, 48, the man accused of shooting the trio, has pleaded not guilty to three counts of attempted murder. On December 18, he is expected to appear in court.
Awartani was visiting his grandmother in Vermont during his Thanksgiving break from Brown University, where he studies mathematics and archaeology.
At the time, his parents assumed that keeping Awartani in the US with his grandmother would be safer than returning to Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. “My husband didn’t want Hisham to come back for Christmas because he thought America would be safer than Palestine,” said his mother, Elizabeth Price. “He was worried about the boys being targeted as being Palestinian, but he thought in Burlington that wouldn’t happen.”
According to the police, the shooter did not say anything before opening fire.
Awartani was shot in the spine; Abdalhamid was hit in the glute; and Ali Ahmad was wounded in the upper chest, Vermont Public reported.
The three victims have been friends since elementary school. Abdalhamid is at Haverford College in Pennsylvania, and Ali Ahmad attends Trinity College in Connecticut.
At a vigil held in Awartani’s honour on November 27 at Brown University’s campus, a professor read out a statement from Awartani describing himself as “one casualty in a much wider conflict.”
But the vigil was disrupted by hundreds of pro-Palestinian students who chanted “shame on you” at the university president and demanded the school divest its endowment from companies profiting from the war.
US President Joe Biden has denounced the attack. “While we are waiting for more facts, we know this: there is absolutely no place for violence or hate in America. Period,” Biden said in a statement.
Photo: Elizabeth Price said her family had suffered a ‘gut-wrenching and difficult six days’, since son Hisham Awartani, 20, was shot with his two friends in Burlington. Hisham shared a hospital bed photo on Instagram.
Editorial: Western leadership values at odds with their people and the world
King’s College union officers suspended for ceasefire calls
St Andrews University rector racially abused over Israel ‘genocide’ claim
Biden support nosedives among Arab Americans
Protesters shut down four UK arms factories producing Israeli fighter-jets
M&S pulls Christmas advert post after Palestinian flag criticism
