Fatal Stabbing Of Muslim Boy Marks Increased Attacks In U.S. Over Israel-Hamas Conflict
Reports of hate crimes and harassment targeting Muslims and Jews in the United States have increased following the ongoing deadly conflict between Israel and Hamas.
Since Oct. 7, when Hamas killed more than 1,000 Israelis and took hundreds of hostages in a surprise attack, Israel’s military response has led to thousands more deaths and prompted human rights groups to warn of ethnic cleansing against the Palestinian population in Gaza, where nearly half the populace is children.
That violence has spilled over to the U.S., where Muslims and Jews are being targeted amid fraught conversations about the Israel-Palestine conflict.
On Monday, the Department of Justice announced it would open a hate crime investigation after a white landlord in Chicago, 71-year-old Joseph Czuba, allegedly stabbed his 6-year-old Palestinian American tenant to death.
Czuba had previously built a treehouse for the boy, Wadea Al-Fayoume, and was like a “grandfather” to him, a family friend told NBC News.
“The child, when he saw Czuba, ran to him for a hug and instead was stabbed 26 times,” family friend Yousef Hannon told the publication.
Czuba’s wife told police that her husband “listens to conservative talk radio on a regular basis” and had become obsessed with the war, according to the NBC News report.
In a statement to HuffPost, the Council on American-Islamic Relations said it has identified at least 14 other incidents of anti-Palestinian violence or harassment in the U.S. since the conflict began.
A Michigan man, for instance, was charged with making a terrorism threat after he allegedly posted on social media asking if anyone in metropolitan Detroit wanted to “go to Dearborn & hunt Palestinians.”
And a professor at Washington University in St. Louis was reportedly fired after posting on social media that Israel’s attacks on Gaza were a “much needed cleansing, yes, but not an ethnic one. Israel is not targeting humans.”
In Massachusetts, the word “Nazis” was spray-painted on a sign for the Islamic Seminary of Boston and the Palestinian Cultural Center for Peace. In San Diego, police are investigating a possible hate crime after dozens of pro-Israeli flyers were posted outside of a mosque.
Meanwhile, in New York, a Palestinian man told authorities he was jumped by several men carrying an Israeli flag. That same day, a 34-year-old man holding a Palestinian flag was reportedly attacked in a separate encounter in Brooklyn.
A sign for the Islamic Seminary of Boston and the Palestinian Cultural Center for Peace was vandalized with the word "Nazis."
Clashes between protesters allied with different sides of the conflict have also been reported.
On Saturday, thousands of pro-Palestine supporters in Los Angeles marched to the Israeli Consulate in what the Los Angeles Times described as a “largely peaceful protest” until a masked pro-Israel demonstrator shot pepper spray at protesters and a Times reporter.
Footage of the incident showed a group of men dressed in black, some wearing Israeli flags around their necks, pepper-spraying demonstrators before fleeing.
And during a protest at Columbia University’s campus in New York City, a woman allegedly hit an Israeli student in the hand with a wooden stick during an argument.
In a statement to HuffPost, the Anti-Defamation League said it had recorded 43 antisemitic incidents in the U.S. related to Israel since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack. The group gave details on 10 of those incidents, including two juveniles who allegedly pointed fake guns at a Brooklyn synagogue and graffiti in San Francisco calling for “Death 2 Israel.” The ADL told HuffPost that some of the incidents that couldn’t be verified in news reports were instead reported directly to the organization.
The FBI also released data on Monday showing that anti-Jewish hate crimes increased by more than 37% in 2022. On Sunday, the white supremacist group White Lives Matter California held a rally on a highway overpass displaying signs that said “No More Wars for I$rael” and “Watch Europa the Last Battle.”
A statement from the Jewish Council For Public Affairs and signed by more than 100 Jewish groups called on all communities to fight hate targeting Muslim Americans, Arab Americans and Jewish Americans.
“As Jewish leaders, we want to be very clear: we unequivocally reject those targeting our Muslim, Arab, and Palestinian American neighbors with bigotry, threats, and violence,” said Amy Spitalnick, CEO of JCPA.
“This is a moment of profound pain for our community – and we refuse to allow some to exploit that pain as an excuse to spread bigotry or extremism of any kind,” she added. “Our communities’ safety is inextricably linked, and only by coming together and calling it out can we defeat the forces of hate and violence.”
