The victims’ families and several civil rights groups have called on investigators to treat the case as a hate crime, as the attack comes amid a reported rise in anti-Muslim and anti-Arab bias incidents in the United States since the war between Israel and Hamas ignited last month.
Prior to the reading of Awartani’s statement at his vigil, Brown University President Christina Paxson was booed off the podium by students for refusing to endorse a ceasefire in Palestine and the divestment of Brown from war profiteers.
Days after the attempted murder of three Palestinian students in Vermont, Brown University asked the city to drop the charges against members of Jews for Ceasefire Now, but remained silent on divestment.