Burlington, Vermont – With Israel waging battle within the Gaza Strip and violence reaching new heights within the occupied West Financial institution, Hisham Awartani’s household thought he can be safer in the USA.
That’s why, as a substitute of going to the West Financial institution for Thanksgiving break, the 20-year-old Palestinian pupil and his two childhood associates determined to spend the US vacation with family within the small northeastern state of Vermont.
It’s additionally why Awartani’s uncle, Wealthy Worth, didn’t suppose an excessive amount of of the convoy of police vehicles that screamed previous his home, sirens blaring, on the night of November 25.
Awartani was presupposed to be out of hurt’s approach within the quaint lakeshore metropolis of Burlington. However a name Worth acquired from his mom that night time would remind him of the violence Palestinians face, even overseas.
“Hisham had called her and said, ‘Granny, I’ve been shot,’” Worth informed Al Jazeera from his eating room, the place household images line the partitions. Giant home windows look out onto North Prospect, the identical avenue the place Awartani and his associates Kinnan Abdalhamid and Tahseen Ahmad had been attacked.
“Their families decided it was safer for them to come to Burlington, Vermont,” Worth stated. “One of the really difficult things about this is that they came here specifically because we felt this was a safer place for them to be.”
The Palestinian college students had been sporting keffiyehs and talking a mix of Arabic and English when a person stepped off his porch, lower than three blocks from Worth’s house, and opened fireplace. All three had been injured however survived. Awartani is now paralysed from the chest down.
“He’s doing incredible work and putting a lot of effort into his rehab, and I think it’s difficult. Now he’s back at Brown [University]. He’s having to actually experience what it means to be back on that campus in a wheelchair,” Worth stated.
The assault didn’t simply upend Awartani’s life, although. It additionally spurred concern throughout the nation, the place Palestinians and their supporters stated they’ve confronted a barrage of hateful rhetoric since Israel’s navy offensive in Gaza started in early October.
In response to Worth, the dehumanisation of Palestinians within the US is the first issue that fuelled November’s taking pictures.
“The Palestinian struggle is one that is not told in a balanced way in this country,” he stated.
“The rhetoric of people in politics, in positions of leadership — certainly after October 7 — that talked about the struggle as a struggle between good and evil is really dehumanising and dangerous rhetoric.”
That’s a view shared by almost a dozen group advocates and specialists who spoke to Al Jazeera for this story. They detailed how politicians, media shops and pro-Israel teams have spent years dehumanising and demonising Palestinians — with typically lethal outcomes.