‘Shame on you’: Brown students boo president off stage during vigil for injured junior

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — Hundreds gathered at Brown University for a vigil Monday evening after a Palestinian student was shot and injured in Vermont over Thanksgiving break.

The student, identified as 20-year-old Hisham Awartani, was among three college students injured while visiting his grandmother’s house in Burlington over the weekend.

The suspect, 48-year-old Jason Eaton, has since been apprehended and the shooting is being investigated as a possible hate crime.

Music can be heard from outside the gates of Brown University tonight, while over 100 students have gathered to pray for one of their classmates, 20 year old Hisham Awartani who was shot while on Thanksgiving break in Vermont. Latest details tonight on pic.twitter.com/OCGI7G1pPh

— Matt Paddock WPRI November 27, 2023

The vigil took a turn when Brown University President Christina Paxson took to the podium. Students could be heard shouting at her as she attempted to deliver her remarks, according to The Brown Daily Herald .

“We can’t disentangle what happened to Hisham from the broader events in Israel and Palestine that sadly we have been dealing with for decades,” Paxson said. “Sadly we can’t control what happens across the world and country. We are powerless to do everything we’d like to do.”

Paxson was eventually booed off the stage as students chanted “shame on you” and demanded the university divest its endowment from companies that are profiting off the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.

The war has been a point of contention at Brown University in recent weeks.

Officers arrested 20 students earlier this month for refusing to leave University Hall after it had closed for the evening. Their plan was to stay put until Brown University President Christina Paxson publicly committed to taking steps to divest the endowment.

Chanting has amplified at Brown University as students have moved their vigil in front of University Hall, the same building 20 students were arrested from for trespassing. What exactly is being chanted is inaudible. pic.twitter.com/nb7oAntmwI

— Matt Paddock WPRI November 27, 2023

Those criminal charges were dropped Monday in what Brown University described as an effort to refocus attention to other important issues and bring the community together as a whole. The students will still be disciplined as appropriate through Brown University’s conduct process.

Brown University history professor Beshara Doumani quelled the crowd following Paxson’s remarks by reading a message directly from Awartani, whom he recently visited in the hospital.

“It’s important to recognize that this is part of the larger story. This hideous crime did not happen in a vacuum,” Doumani said, reading the junior’s message. “I am but one casualty in this much wider conflict.”

“Had I been shot in the West Bank, where I grew up, the medical services that saved my life here would likely have been withheld by the Israeli army,” his message continued. “The soldier who shot me would go home and never be convicted. I understand that the pain is so much more real and immediate because many of you know me, but any attack like this is horrific, be it here or in Palestine.”

In his message, Awartani encouraged his fellow students to not only keep him in their thoughts during these difficult times, but also those who are being oppressed overseas.

Watch for us in your inbox.