Burlington, Vermont – If it might occur right here, it might occur wherever.
That could be a feeling shared by many residents in Burlington, Vermont, a small metropolis within the northeastern United States the place three Palestinian faculty college students had been shot late final yr whereas strolling down a residential avenue.
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 carrying 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 warfare on Gaza.
Nevertheless it additionally raises questions on how hate crimes are outlined and whether or not an absence of knowledge impacts how critically some incidents are taken.
Whereas many individuals in Burlington imagine 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 informed Al Jazeera, in addition to lingering frustration that hate-fuelled violence in opposition to Palestinians and Arabs, in addition to Muslims, is just not a precedence.
“If the identical children didn’t put on the keffiyeh or didn’t communicate Arabic, do you suppose they’d be shot? No,” mentioned Fuad Al-Amoody, the vp 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 group centre in South Burlington. “We should always keep the identical normal throughout the board.”