She said the war between Israel and Hamas has made it hard to focus on school.
“It’s shock and sadness,” said one student, a senior who requested anonymity on Monday because she is Palestinian and fears for her safety. She said she knows the Brown student who was attacked, Hisham Awartani, a junior, as do many of her friends. She wouldn’t comment on how he is doing, but friends are in touch with him, she said.
PROVIDENCE — Students at Brown University were horrified to learn that a fellow student was among the three young men of Palestinian descent who were shot and injured on Saturday in Burlington, Vermont.
“Especially yesterday,” she said. “Everyone’s coming out of Thanksgiving, procrastinating assignments. I just hung out with a friend, sad, and we mourned that it [the shooting] happened.” She said her mom texted her this morning to “be safe.”
From left: Tahseen Aliahmad, Kinnan Abdalhamid, and Hisham Awartani posing for a photograph. The three men were all injured in a triple shooting Saturday. Photo provided by their families through the Institute for Middle East Understanding. Photo provided by their families through the Institute for Middle East Understanding. Awartani and two childhood friends, Kinnan Abdalhamid and Tahseen Ali Ahmad, were attacked near the University of Vermont campus in Burlington on Saturday. All are 20 years old. Two are American citizens and the third a legal resident. The students — who attend Brown University, Haverford College, and Trinity College, according to the schools — were in Burlington visiting Awartani’s relatives over the Thanksgiving holiday. Get Rhode Map A weekday briefing from veteran Rhode Island reporters, focused on the things that matter most in the Ocean State.Enter Email Awartani told police he and his friends were speaking a mixture of English and Arabic as they walked down North Prospect Street after returning from a family party at a bowling alley in nearby Colchester, Vermont. Awartani told investigators the shooter came within about two yards of them and began firing, according to an affidavit filed in court in Vermont. Authorities are investigating the attack as as a possible hate crime. At a press briefing Monday in Burlington with local and federal officials, Awartani’s uncle, Rich Price, said all three students remain in intensive care. “I think Kinnan’s injuries are, though difficult, he will make a full and speedy recovery,” Price said. “Tahseen is in quite a lot of pain. And my nephew Hisham received a spinal injury as a result of the shooting and faces a long recovery.” Jason J. Eaton, 48, was arrested shortly after 3:30 p.m. Sunday by federal agents investigating the shootings, which happened around 6:30 p.m. on Saturday outside Eaton’s apartment, Burlington police said. Jason Goodman, a senior at Brown, said Monday he was horrified to hear a peer had been shot over the weekend. He said while he didn’t know Awartani, he found it “really upsetting” that violence against Palestinian American students had touched the Brown community. “It feels more personal than it did before,” Goodman said. Goodman said he and his friends had been watching the news all weekend. “A lot of us yesterday were really holding our breath, waiting to hear if we lost a member of our community or not,” Goodman said. “Certainly that was the most horrible part.” The atmosphere on campus felt different on Monday, Goodman said. He observed more students on campus wearing keffiyehs — traditional Palestinian head scarves — than he has before, he said. People are showing support for the three victims, he said. “That solidarity is cool to see,” he said. Talia Sawiris, a senior at Brown, is the president of Brown Arab Society, a student cultural group with about 150 members, including Awartani. Sawiris said she was “horrified and sad” to learn that a friend and community member was shot over the weekend. She described the mood on campus on Monday as a mix of “profound sadness and fear,” but also frustration. Since the Oct. 7 terrorist attack by Hamas, the student group’s members “have been talking about the ways in which the dehumanization and the erasure of Palestinian life in America makes Arab, Palestinian, and Muslim [students] more susceptible to incidents of hate,” Sawiris said. “I find it shameful that we had to wait until a student was shot before material support for our students on this campus was extended by this administration.” Brown Arab Society and other student groups — including Brown Students for Justice in Palestine, BrownU Jews for Ceasefire Now, and Brown Palestine Solidarity Caucus — have been asking Brown University President Christina Paxson to condemn violence against Palestinians, and divest from companies that provide military aid to Israel. ”Our students have directly told Paxson that Brown’s investment in the military industrial complex jeopardizes our safety,” Sawiris said. By not divesting, the university is “contributing to the atmosphere of dehumanization and erasure of Palestinian people,” she said. “Which honestly, is directly to blame for Hisham’s shooting and for the violence he’s experiencing,” she added. In a statement sent to students on Sunday in response to the shooting in Vermont, Paxson condemned anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian discrimination as well as acts of violence and hate. Students from Brown Students for Justice in Palestine stood outside the campus center Monday just before noon, handing out fliers and encouraging students to “act now” and to stand with “Jews for Ceasefire Now.” They encouraged passersby to attend a vigil on campus Monday evening, and directed questions about Awartani to the statement provided by his family. Early Monday afternoon, the University announced that the vigil would not be open to the public. “The Brown University community is deeply shaken by the attack on one of our students in Vermont over the weekend, and the vigil is intended as a space where our students, faculty and staff can have the comfort of community with hopes of encouraging healing,” the university said in a statement.
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