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wadea al fayoume
Peace Group Faces Death Threats After 'False Accusations' by Lawmaker at RNC
"This is a deliberate attempt to scapegoat and incite hate and retaliatory violence against our organization and views."
Jul 17, 2024
CodePink on Wednesday published a recording of a vicious death threat it received after a GOP congressman's dubious assault allegation against one of the peace group's members resulted in her arrest outside the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
According to CodePink, Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.)—a former Navy SEAL—"falsely accused" Nour Jaghama, the group's Palestine campaign coordinator, of assault after he ran into her from behind. Jaghama was arrested and held for 15 hours in a Milwaukee jail before being released. She was charged with battery against a sitting member of Congress.
"CodePink unequivocally states that no one from our organization assaulted anyone," the group said in a statement. "We attended the RNC to deliver a message of peace and disarmament, adhering strictly to nonviolent protest methods."
Van Orden took to social media Tuesday evening to claim he was "assaulted by what appeared to be a member of the pro-Hamas group CodePink" in "an incident of political violence."
"Republicans have been intimidated and targeted for years including the attempted assassination of [former President Donald] Trump and we will no longer stand by and allow lawlessness," the congressman added.
Van Orden has a history of aggressive behavior toward others, including profanity-laced tirades against a fellow congressman and a group of teenage Senate pages, and threatening a librarian over a book about gay rabbits.
Hours after Van Orden's post, CodePink received the following message:
The next Palestinian protest in the street, I'm going to get my semi-truck and run over you fucking faggots and make road pancake out of you, you fucking cunt. I hope you all die, bitch.
"Mere days after a high-profile assassination attempt, [Van Orden] used the same words to describe our peace organization that the nation is using to describe the person who attempted to kill Donald Trump," CodePink said in a statement. "This is a deliberate attempt to scapegoat and incite hate and retaliatory violence against our organization and views. In a heated political moment where people all over the United States are called to unite, Van Orden used the moment to incite hate against nonviolent activists."
CodePink called Van Orden's "pro-Hamas" slur "an obvious example of the racial profiling and anti-Palestinian hatred that has been stoked in this country since October 7."
"Hateful messaging and false accusations against Palestinians led to the killing of Wadea Al Fayoume, a 6-year-old boy in Illinois, the shooting of three Palestinian young men in Vermont, and the attempted drowning of a Palestinian child in Texas," the group added. "This incident is another incitement of violence against Palestinians. The very same rhetoric that leads our elected officials to disregard Palestinian life in Gaza is the rhetoric they use to disregard Palestinian life at home."
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Hundreds of US Congressional Staffers Sign Open Letter Demanding Gaza Cease-Fire
"We feel compelled to raise our voices in this moment," the staffers wrote. "Millions of lives hang in the balance."
Oct 19, 2023
Citing the "catastrophic suffering" inflicted upon the people of Gaza by Israel's relentless bombardment of the Palestinian territory, hundreds of Muslim and Jewish U.S. congressional staffers on Thursday signed an open letter urging lawmakers to demand a cease-fire as the war approaches the two-week mark.
"We feel compelled to raise our voices in this moment," the staffers wrote. "Millions of lives hang in the balance, including the 2.3 million civilians—half of whom are children—in Gaza, civilians in Israel, and Jews and Muslims around the world. This is especially urgent with antisemitism, anti-Muslim, and anti-Palestinian sentiment on the rise nationwide, which instigated the brutal murder of a 6-year-old Palestinian American child, Wadea Al-Fayoume."
"We all are calling on our elected officials to find a new way forward together, through unbreakable solidarity motivated by our humanity."
Israeli officials said more than 1,400 Israeli civilians and soldiers were killed in the Hamas-led surprise attacks of October 7.
The staffers said they "join in mourning the loss of... Israelis murdered by these acts of terrorism and in prayer for those injured and the around 200 hostages in Gaza, including our fellow Americans, whose safe return is a priority for us all."
"We join members of Congress and the international community's denunciation of the horrific war crimes Hamas has committed," the letter states. "At the same time, we mourn for the Palestinian civilians who are enduring catastrophic suffering at the hands of the Israeli government. As of this writing, more than 6,000 bombs have been dropped on the Gaza Strip. More than 4,000 Palestinian civilians, including entire families, have been slain, and about 12,500 are injured."
"Palestinians in Gaza are facing critical shortages of medicine, food, drinking water, fuel, and electricity following the Israeli government's brutal blockade," the staffers noted. "As Muslims, Jews, and allies, we believe that denying these basic resources violates the tenets of our faiths, values, and our humanity."
"We are tired of reliving generational fears of genocide and ethnic cleansing," they added. "We are tired of leaders pushing us to blame each other, exploiting our pain and our histories to rationalize political agendas and justify violence. We all are calling on our elected officials to find a new way forward together, through unbreakable solidarity motivated by our humanity."
The staffers' letter follows the introduction earlier this week of a resolution led by Reps. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and co-sponsored by 13 other House progressives urging the Biden administration to push for an immediate cease-fire.
In the Senate, Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Wednesday blocked passage of Republican legislation to prohibit American aid to Gaza until President Joe Biden certifies that the funds won't benefit members of Hamas or any other U.S.-designated terrorist organization.
"We have got to do everything that we can to make sure that not one nickel goes to the murderous Hamas organization," Sanders explained. "But at the same time, we have got to stand with the innocent women and children in Palestine who are suffering today and are facing an almost unprecedented modern humanitarian disaster."
In stark contrast with the progressive lawmakers' call for an immediate cease-fire, the United States on Wednesday vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution condemning violence against civilians in Israel and Gaza and calling for "humanitarian pauses" to allow aid to enter the besieged Palestinian territory. The U.S. was the only Security Council member to oppose the measure.
A U.S.-brokered deal to allow 20 truckloads of humanitarian aid into Gaza from Egypt was announced late Wednesday, although the details were still being hammered out on Thursday.
Also on Wednesday, Josh Paul, who spent 11 years as director of congressional and public affairs for the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, tendered his resignation over U.S. military aid to Israel during what numerous critics have called its "genocide" against Palestinians.
"I made myself a promise that I would stay for as long as I felt the harm I might do could be outweighed by the good I could do," Paul explained in his resignation letter. "I am leaving today because I believe that in our current course with regards to the continued—indeed, expanded and expedited—provision of lethal arms to Israel—I have reached the end of that bargain."
Huffpostreported Thursday that one State Department staffer described tensions in the agency as "basically a mutiny brewing... at all levels."
Throughout the Biden administration, staffers—especially Muslims—are sounding the alarm on a "culture of silence" stifling voices critical of Israel's onslaught or advocating a policy of restraint.
Biden is set to discuss "Hamas terrorist attacks against Israel, the need for humanitarian assistance in Gaza, [and] Russia's ongoing brutal war against Ukraine" during a prime-time televised address Thursday evening.
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'Unspeakable': Cops Say 6-Year-Old Palestinian American Boy Stabbed to Death by Landlord
"Let's be clear. This was directly connected to the dehumanizing of Palestinians that has been allowed over the last week by our media, by our elected officials," said one Illinois state lawmaker.
Oct 16, 2023
U.S. civil rights defenders on Monday condemned the fatal stabbing of a 6-year-old Palestinian American boy in Illinois, an alleged hate crime that occurred amid Israel's massive bombardment of Gaza and the incendiary dehumanization of Palestinians in countries including Israel and the United States.
The Will County Sheriff's Office (WCSO) said on Facebook that Wadea Al Fayoume was stabbed 26 times Saturday by his family’s landlord, 71-year-old Joseph Czuba, in Plainfield Township, Illinois, about 35 miles southwest of Chicago. According to WCSO, Czuba used a "12-inch serrated military-style knife that has a seven-inch blade."
Hanaan Shahin, the slain boy's 32-year-old mother, was also stabbed more than a dozen times, WCSO said, adding that she is "recovering from her injuries at a local area hospital and is expected to survive this brutal attack."
WCSO said that "Czuba was charged with first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, hate crime... and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon."
"Detectives were able to determine that both victims in this brutal attack were targeted by the suspect due to them being Muslim and the ongoing Middle Eastern conflict involving Hamas and the Israelis," the department added, referring to the surprise October 7 attack on Israel by Gaza-based militants that left over 1,400 Israeli civilians and soldiers dead and Israel's massive bombardment of Gaza that has killed nearly 3,000 Palestinians.
The FBI is also investigating the killing as a hate crime.
Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, who attended Al Fayoume's funeral Monday, said in a statement that "to take a 6-year-old child’s life in the name of bigotry is nothing short of evil."
"Every single Illinoisan—including our Muslim, Jewish, and Palestinian neighbors—deserves to live free from the threat of such evil," he added.
U.S. President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden also condemned the attack:
This horrific act of hate has no place in America, and stands against our fundamental values: freedom from fear for how we pray, what we believe, and who we are.
As Americans, we must come together and reject Islamophobia and all forms of bigotry and hatred. I have said repeatedly that I will not be silent in the face of hate. We must be unequivocal. There is no place in America for hate against anyone.
At a Sunday news conference, Illinois State Assemblyman Abdelnasser Rashid (D-21)—who is Palestinian American—said: "Let's be clear. This was directly connected to the dehumanizing of Palestinians that has been allowed over the last week by our media, by our elected officials who have lacked the moral compass and lacked the courage to call for something as simple as de-escalation and peace."
"Let's not sugar-coat it," Rashid wrote on X, formerly Twitter, "this hate crime is a result of the dehumanizing, one-sided media coverage of Palestinians and irresponsible statements from elected officials."
"Israeli spokespeople have been using genocidal language about Palestinians on news channels every day for the past week," he added. "The Israeli military has killed over 2,600 Palestinians in the last week, including more than 700 children, and the numbers increase by the hour."
By Monday the death toll in Gaza approached 3,000, more than 1,000 of whom are children. That's the most Palestinians ever killed by Israeli forces during a war on Gaza. At least 47 entire Palestinian families have been wiped out.
Responding to Al Fayoume's murder, NAACP president and CEO Derrick Johnson said in a statement that "once again, the proliferation of misinformation and hateful conspiracy theories has resulted in a life lost far too soon."
"Today, the NAACP grieves the loss of 6-year-old Wadea Al Fayoume. No one should face the threat of violence in their own home, and we must do everything in our power to stop hate wherever it rears its ugly head," Johnson added. "There is no place for hate in a democracy."
Ahmed Rehab, executive director of the Chicago branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), said that "we have testimony from the mother as to the harrowing moments that unfolded in terms of what was done and said—and it is our worst nightmare."
"We have full confidence in the authorities to investigate this heinous incident as a hate crime and to do so swiftly," Rehab added.
"The Islamophobic rhetoric and anti-Palestinian racism being spread by politicians, media outlets, and social media platforms must stop," CAIR national said in a statement.
On Monday, the FBI released its annual hate crime statistics. According to the bureau, antisemitic offenses rose 25% percent from 2021 to 2022, accounting for more than half of all reported religion-based hate crimes. Hate crimes targeting Latino people soared nearly one-third. Anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes increased 16%, while Muslim and Black Americans continued to be disproportionately affected.
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