Hanan Shaheen, the mom of 6-year-old Plainfield boy Wadee Alfayoumi, who was stabbed to demise in an October 2023 assault that drew hate crime expenses, met with President Joe Biden throughout a go to to the White House whereas concluded the ultimate days of his presidency.
Biden spoke with Shaheen for about 10 minutes, stated Maaria Mozaffar, an Illinois-based legislative lawyer who accompanied Shaheen to the Oval Office on Tuesday.
“We understood the enormity of the second and needed to have the ability to specific all the emotions and statements that the Muslim group want to specific,” Mozaffar stated. “It is essential to know that behind each coverage, each choice and each political workplace there’s a human being, and we is not going to quit the chance to have a human-to-human connection.”
According to police, Joseph Czuba, the household’s landlord, stabbed Shaheen dozens of instances outdoors the house and Wadee 26 instances due to their Muslim and Palestinian identities.
At the White House, Shaheen and Mozaffar first met with senior administration officers earlier than spending a couple of moments with Biden. Mozaffar selected to offer Biden a Palestinian keffiyeh, an English-language Koran and a picket board with a biblical verse that claims: “Do unto others as you’ll have them do unto you.” The articles go far past political headlines and information concerning the warfare between Israel and Hamas, Mozaffar stated.
She additionally gave him a letter, which reads partly: “It is the truth is dehumanization that enables us to continuously make it tolerable to witness the crushing of youngsters beneath buildings. If such a case occurred in cities like Chicago, New York, Washington DC, youngsters caught within the crossfire of warfare to realize a navy goal, we might instantly say, “Find one other approach as this crosses each purple line of what we’re as Americans”. .’”
Thaer Ahmad, an emergency doctor from Chicago’s South Side who traveled to Gaza final 12 months and has been outspoken about Wadee’s killing, stated the assembly between Shaheen and Biden was a big second of recognition. But the second is just not favorable to him.
“It’s unlucky that it took so lengthy, and I’ve to be trustworthy — as a father of two little women and clearly as a Palestinian American — one thing bothers me about the truth that this occurred within the final lame days,” Ahmad stated. . “It felt like we had been working so laborious for Wadee to get the eye that another American child would get in a tragedy like this, however clearly (I help) something we will do to proceed to convey issues again to what occurred.”
The assembly was lengthy overdue for Mozaffar, who has pushed political leaders to talk about Wadee’s killing as representing the dehumanization of Palestinians and Muslims after the Oct. 14 Plainfield assault.
Authorities stated Czuba focused the household after the Oct. 7 Hamas assault in Israel and have become radicalized by listening to political feedback per week after the warfare between Israel and Hamas started. Czuba has been charged with two counts of hate crimes along with first-degree homicide and tried first-degree homicide, and could have a jury trial subsequent month.
Shaheen was hospitalized and Wadee’s demise was cemented as a “sufferer of false narratives, misinformation and hatred,” Mozaffar stated, fueled by “harmful political rhetoric used for political expediency on the highest ranges of political workplace.” .
The non-public assembly on the White House was each an announcement and a possibility for Biden to deal with the problems that probably outlined the ultimate years of his presidency, Mozaffar stated, including that he tried extensively to ensure his phrases lined the severity of the final 15 months. of the warfare in Gaza and its implications on humanity.
The day earlier than the assembly, US officers introduced {that a} ceasefire settlement between Israel and Hamas was imminent, doubtlessly placing the warfare in Gaza on maintain.
And on Friday, the Associated Press reported that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed {that a} ceasefire settlement had been reached, which may convey reduction to a area the place practically 90% of the nation’s 2.3 million individuals Gaza are displaced.
Authorities say Israel’s navy offensive has killed greater than 46,000 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded a whole bunch of 1000’s, a lot of whom are in tent cities alongside the coast with out entry to meals, drugs and different primary requirements. A brand new evaluation revealed this month by the Lancet says the demise toll in Gaza is actual much higher. The October 7 Hamas assault killed 1,200 individuals in Israel.
Many Palestinians within the Chicago space hope for a long-lasting settlement that brings peace to their households in Gaza, however like Bridgeview resident Fidaa Elaydi, they’re heartbroken that so many lives have been misplaced.
“There is a lot anger and frustration that the Biden administration didn’t train its political energy to push Israel to succeed in this settlement sooner,” Elaydi instructed the Tribune. “So a lot destruction may have been prevented, a lot anguish and a lot sorrow and ache, a lot loss… but he needs to say this (ceasefire) as his diplomatic victory when in actuality it’s the results of his abysmal failure. “
In March, dozens of Arab, Muslim and Palestinian-American leaders rejected a White House request to fulfill with group organizers in Chicago forward of the Illinois main, feeling alienated by Biden’s staunch help for Israel and the move of U.S. weapons that Israel used to bomb. Gaza.
Mozaffar additionally rejected the assembly, explaining that he did not assume the assembly would lead to impactful coverage modifications.
But after a congressional decision honoring Wadee — drafted by Mozaffar and sponsored by U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin — handed the Senate unanimously in September, Mozaffer stated White House aides contacted her to arrange a telephone name between Shaheen and the president on the anniversary of Wadee’s demise. demise. Mozaffar urged the president to fulfill Shaheen in individual throughout that decision.
This assembly can be totally different, Mozaffar stated, “if we may join straight with the president to reaffirm the results of dehumanizing somebody who’s a sufferer of false narratives, it could have a distinct affect.”
Mozaffar stated that, aside from every little thing else, the non-public second between Shaheen and Biden, who misplaced a daughter and a son, was about shared grief.
At the top of the dialog, Shaheen instructed the president: “We are related by God. We each have misplaced youngsters.”
zsyed@chicagotribune.com
Originally revealed:
