Harun Nasrullah
A violent shooting in Miami Beach on February 15 left two Israeli tourists hospitalized after a Jewish man, believing they were Palestinian, fired at least 17 rounds at them.
The victims, a father and son visiting from Israel, survived the attack, while the suspect, 27-year-old Mordechai Brafman, has been charged with attempted murder.
According to law enforcement, Brafman stopped his car before opening fire on the two individuals using a semiautomatic handgun. One victim was shot in the shoulder, while the other sustained a gunshot wound to the forearm.
During his interrogation, Brafman reportedly admitted to the shooting, telling authorities:
“It should be noted that while in custody in our interview room, the defendant spontaneously stated that while he was driving his truck, he saw two Palestinians and shot and killed both. The victims and the defendant do not know each other, as stated in the arrest report.
Officials have not confirmed the victims’ identities beyond their status as visitors from Israel. However, a local Jewish community account, “South_Florida_Simchas,” posted on Instagram that they were an Israeli father and son, clarifying that neither were Palestinian.
This attack comes amid heightened global tensions following Israel’s war on Gaza, which began in October 2023. Civil rights organisations have documented a rise in hate-related incidents across the US in the past two years.
In October 2023, a six-year-old Palestinian American was fatally stabbed 26 times and his mother seriously wounded in Illinois, in an attack officials say was linked to the Israel-Palestine war and because they identified as Muslim. Wadea al-Fayoume, a six-year-old boy, was stabbed 26 times and had a 12-inch serrated military knife with a seven-inch blade lodged in his body.
Two months later, three Palestinian American college students were speaking Arabic and wearing keffiyehs, a scarf synonymous with Palestinian solidarity, and were en route to dinner when they were shot by a gunman in Burlington, Vermont. One of them is now paralyzed from the chest down and may not be able to walk again.
Florida has seen a sharp increase in hate crimes. According to the Department of Justice, hate crime reports in the state jumped by over 50 percent between 2022 and 2023, rising from 161 to 249 incidents. Most of these crimes were linked to ethnicity and religion. In contrast, other populous states such as California, New York, and Texas saw a slight decrease in reported hate incidents during the same period.
Florida’s gun laws, which allow residents to carry concealed weapons without training, background checks, or a permit, have drawn renewed scrutiny following this incident.
The Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is calling for federal hate crime charges against Brafman. Wilfredo Amr Ruiz, a CAIR representative, emphasized that the charges should focus on the shooter’s motivation rather than the actual identity of the victims:
“It is the alleged shooter’s reportedly bias-motivated actions, not the actual ethnicity of the victims, that should be the determining factor for charges in this disturbing case.”
Biased attacks based on mistaken identity are not uncommon, and this case highlights the dangers of racial and ethnic profiling, as well as the broader implications of hate-fueled violence. Authorities continue to investigate the incident, and civil rights groups are urging officials to take decisive action against hate-driven crimes in the state.
Photo: Mordechai Brafman is pictured in this booking photo taken on February 16, 2025, (Credit: Miami-Dade County Corrections and Rehabilitation)
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