Burlington, Vermont – If it may possibly occur right here, it may possibly occur anyplace.
That may be a feeling shared by many residents in Burlington, Vermont, a small metropolis within the northeastern United States the place three Palestinian school college students had been shot late last year whereas strolling down a residential road.
Hisham Awartani, Kinnan Abdalhamid and Tahseen Ahmad had been talking a mix of Arabic and English after they had been attacked on November 25. Two of the scholars had been sporting Palestinian keffiyeh scarves.
All three survived, however Awartani was left paralysed from the chest down.
The capturing has shone a highlight on how suspected hate crimes within the US have elevated within the shadow of Israel’s war on Gaza.
But it surely additionally raises questions on how hate crimes are outlined and whether or not an absence of knowledge impacts how significantly some incidents are taken.
Whereas many individuals in Burlington consider the three younger males had been focused due to their Palestinian id, authorities are nonetheless investigating and haven’t filed any hate crime prices but.
That has fuelled a way of confusion, residents instructed Al Jazeera, in addition to lingering frustration that hate-fuelled violence against Palestinians and Arabs, in addition to Muslims, shouldn’t be a precedence.
“If the identical children didn’t put on the keffiyeh or didn’t converse Arabic, do you suppose they might be shot? No,” stated Fuad Al-Amoody, the vice chairman of the Islamic Society of Vermont (ISV).
“How then [are we] saying this isn’t a hate crime?” Al-Amoody requested Al Jazeera in an interview final month on the ISV’s mosque and neighborhood centre in South Burlington. “We must always preserve the identical normal throughout the board.”