Statement on the Shootings of Palestinian Students Hisham Awartani, Kinnan Abdalhamid, Tahseen Ali Ahmad
Our hearts go out to Hisham Awartani, Kinnan Abdalhamid, Tahseen Ali Ahmad, and their families as they heal from the horrific shooting in Vermont on November 25th. As white-supremacist/zionist violence directed at Palestinians in the U.S. rises, we unfortunately cannot say that we are surprised by this disturbing event or the lack of adequate response by our leaders. This is what US American empire does: It exports racist violence abroad by endorsing and materially supporting zionist genocide against Palestinians, and it imports that same violence back within these constructed borders through the normalization of anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab, and anti-Muslim legislation and rhetoric pushed by American politicians, university administrators, and mainstream press columnists/commentators. In return, the Israeli Occupation Force trains U.S. police in the most “effective” racial profiling tactics, civilian surveillance technologies, and other techniques of upholding apartheid, so they can more efficiently enforce xenophobic borders, monitor Muslim communities, and incarcerate Black and Brown people. So, while American and Israeli authorities construct the narrative that demonizes Palestinians, militarized forces carry out their prescriptions for violence, further emboldening terrorists such as the Vermont shooter in this most recent act of anti-Palestinian hatred and assault. This is the cycle of violence that forms the inseparable bond between the US and Israel.
This is what the US American empire does: It exports racist violence abroad by endorsing and materially supporting zionist genocide against Palestinians, and it imports that same violence back....
As Hisham Awartani so humbly put it, “It is important to recognize that this is part of the larger story. This hideous crime did not happen in a vacuum. As much as I appreciate and love every single one of you here today, I am but one casualty in this much wider conflict. Had I been shot in the West Bank, where I grew up, the medical services that saved my life would likely have been withheld by the Israeli army. The soldier who shot me would go home and never be convicted. I understand that the pain is so much more real and immediate because so many of you know me, but any attack like this is horrific, be it here or in Palestine. This is why when you say your wishes and light your candles today, your mind should not be focused on me as an individual, but rather as a proud member of a people being oppressed.”
We must understand that the shooting in Vermont is directly connected to the genocide, terror, and destruction occurring across Palestine. This hateful, white-supremacist violence reminds us of the horrific stabbing of six year old Wadea Al Fayoume, a murder that happened days after Joe Biden promoted the false zionist talking point that Israeli babies were beheaded on October 7th. It is not a coincidence that this most recent incidence of racist violence against Palestinians in Vermont came only a few days after the discovery of Stuart Seldowitz’s brutal, repeated harassment of a halal-cart street vendor in New York City. It is not a coincidence that this shooting occurred only a few days after National Security spokesperson John Kirby repeated the ludicrous zionist propaganda that Israel is, itself, fighting against a genocide. It is not a coincidence that this shooting occurred only a few weeks after Republican Florida House Representative Michelle Salzman expressed her genocidal intent to “kill them all” (in reference to Palestinians) at a hearing on a bill calling for ceasefire. U.S. officials sharing intentionally inflammatory anti-Palestinian misinformation, publicly doubting the accuracy of reporting in Palestinian media, denying statements of fact by Palestinian administrative institutions, and making violent and genocidal statements against Palestinians are the direct cause of this rise in anti-Palestinian racist violence in the United States. They are all a symptom of the white-supremacist ideology and identity that courses through the veins of U.S. imperialism and colonial history.
We must understand that the shooting in Vermont is directly connected to the genocide, terror, and destruction occurring across Palestine.
Further still, it is necessary to highlight how white-supremacist ideology serves to further propagandize the public in the aftermath of the kind of racist violence perpetrated in Chicago and Vermont. This can be seen in the mainstream media’s depiction of the Vermont shooter, which conveyed a tone of sympathy by having the audacity to frame him as someone who has, “had a lot of struggles in his life but... is such a kind and loving person” (Daily Beast). This disgraceful mischaracterization that appeals to the rotting heart of whiteness is commonly found at the scene of any crime in which a white person is the perpetrator. This can be seen from cases of anti-Black police violence/murder, to mass shootings, to white collar crimes by parasitic monopolies, and further, in the innumerable crimes committed by white Americans that are not persecuted as they would be against others of different racialized identities. As the media avoids identifying the Vermont shooting as a hate-crime—as the families of Hisham, Kinnan, and Tahseen have asked—we know that they too, are stoking the flames of white nationalism.
This disgraceful mischaracterization that appeals to the rotting heart of whiteness is commonly found at the scene of any crime in which a white person is the perpetrator.
Yet as racist, Islamophobic violence rises around the country, our government overlooks the pain and suffering of Arab and Muslim communities and chooses instead to pass H.R. 894 and H.R. 888 in the House, which seeks to further paint the Palestine solidarity movement as terrorists/antisemites. We can easily predict the harmful effect these fascist resolutions/bills—which seek to legally equate anti-zionism with antisemitism and criminalize support for Palestinian liberation—will have on fomenting further violence against Palestinians in the U.S. and abroad. As a collective of Jewish anti-zionists and allies, we recognize the role of zionist institutions in the perpetuation of zionism/the violence it entails. The Anti-Defamation League and Jewish National Fund are major forces pushing to equate antisemitism and anti-zionism despite international criticism against this disgusting manipulation of Jewish history. We call upon fellow anti-zionists to face the real terrorists running this fascist empire: those inciting white nationalism, racism, and Islamophobia, those calling for genocide openly or behind closed doors, and those grotesquely spending taxpayer dollars on war crimes while the most vulnerable people living in the U.S. are increasingly made destitute by their government’s financial policies that benefit only the most wealthy. For Palestinians in Gaza and around the world, we say ceasefire now, end the occupation and all U.S. financial/military aid to the zionist regime, and free Palestine from the river to the sea!
You can make a donation to Hisham and his family at their GoFundMe.
Note: As we’ve just initiated our blog, we will now be publishing statements written by JAWS comrades over the past month.