WASHINGTON — At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday on the rise of hate crimes against Jewish and Arab Americans, Republicans ignored the woman sitting quietly in the front row, dressed in black.
They didn’t bother offering condolences to Hanan Shaheen, the mother of Wadee Alfayoumi, the 6-year-old Plainfield boy who was stabbed to death in what authorities called an anti-Muslim, anti-Palestinian hate crime.
They didn’t offer any concern at all about the rise of anti-Muslim and ant-Palestinian hate crimes. They had a lot to say about antisemitism on college campuses, pro-Palestinian demonstrations and the safety of Jewish students. Don’t get me wrong. That’s a problem.
But what spoke volumes was the way the Republicans did it — to the exclusion of anything else — and in the context of a presidential election where the GOP nominee, Donald Trump, is a top purveyor of hate speech (making the false claim that Haitian immigrants in Ohio are eating people’s pets), who castigates Jews who vote for Democrats.
To be specific, I’m talking about Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Ted Cruz and John Cornyn of Texas, Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Josh Hawley of Missouri, John Kennedy of Louisiana and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee.
They knew or should have known about Wadee’s horrific death, even if they got to the hearing after it started. Wadee’s death, coming a week after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack in Israel, was a giant national story, reverberating far outside of the Chicago suburb where the boy was killed.
The hearing’s focus was on “how the federal government can better protect the civil rights and safety of all Americans, including Jewish, Arab and Muslim Americans” in “response to the ongoing and persistent rise in antisemitism, Islamophobia, anti-Arab hate and other forms of bigotry across the country.”
Hanan Shaheen sits in the first row during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday on hate crimes targeting the Palestinian, Arab, Muslim and Jewish communities. Shaheen’s 6-year-old son was stabbed to death in what authorities say was a hate crime committed at their home in Plainfield on Oct. 14, 2023.
Hate crimes have spiked since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that triggered the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, a conflict soon to hit the one-year mark.
At the start of the hearing, the committee chair, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said, “The FBI’s most recent national hate crime statistics document (cites) 11,634 hate crimes — the highest number since the FBI began reporting data. And, since the horrific Oct. 7th Hamas attack on Israel, we have seen an increase in attacks on Jewish Americans, Palestinian Americans, Arab Americans and Muslim Americans.”
Durbin, when he spoke, was flanked by two big pictures — of Wadee and Rose Mallinger.
“I’d like to acknowledge that my constituent Hanan Shaheen, Wadee Alfayoumi’s mother, is in the audience,” Durbin said.
Wadee, a Palestinian American, was stabbed 26 times. Shaheen was also stabbed several times. Their landlord, Joseph Czuba, has been charged with Wadee’s slaying and with the attack on Shaheen.
Mallinger was one of the 11 members of the Tree of Life synagogue congregation killed on Oct. 27, 2018, in Pittsburgh — the largest attack against Jews in U.S. history — and three of her relatives were in the audience.
Graham, the top Republican on the panel, said there should have been a separate hearing on antisemitism and “radical” Islamism on college campuses — just like House Republicans had.
Durbin said he was trying to identify problems in America “that extend beyond the Jewish population.”
In my analysis, Durbin wanted a hearing on hate crimes that would not pit Jewish Americans against Arab Americans, specifically Palestinian Americans, as the war in Gaza continues. We are living in extremely difficult, complex times. Hamas continues to hold hostages taken in Israel, the number of civilian deaths in Gaza continues to soar and a negotiated cease-fire seems out of reach. Each day brings awful developments.
The Chicago area is home to the nation’s largest Palestinian American and Palestinian population, and one of the biggest Jewish communities in the U.S.
The low point in the hearing came when Kennedy repeatedly asked one of the witnesses, Maya Berry, the executive director of the Arab American Institute — and a Muslim — if she supported Hamas and Hezbollah. “You support Hamas, don’t you?” Kennedy asked, raising his voice.
“I think it is exceptionally disappointing that you are looking at an Arab American witness before you and saying, ‘You support Hamas,’” Berry said, making it clear that she did not “support Hamas.” But Kennedy would not let go.
“You should hide your head in a bag,” Kennedy told Berry, to groans in the audience.
Durbin, at the end of the hearing, said, “I regret some of the things that were said today.”
Hanan Shaheen didn’t want to be interviewed. She was with a contingent from the Muslim Civic Coalition, a national organization based in Chicago, and was with them at a news conference in front of the Capitol after the hearing.
Dilara Sayeed, president of the coalition, said the upside of the hearing was that it “was the first of its kind to actually name a six-year-old Palestinian American child as the first victim on American soil of a hate crime. This hearing is just the beginning.”