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Palestinian ‘Hate-Crime’ Hoax
Supporters of CAIR are seen at a 2019 protest. Photo: via Flickr
JNS.org – The Vermont man charged with shooting three Palestinian-American college students on Nov. 25 was a defender of Hamas, The New York Times has belatedly acknowledged—and with it, the No. 1 example of an “anti-Palestinian hate crime” has completely crumbled.
For the past three months, the Times and other major news media have portrayed the incident in the city of Burlington as proof that Palestinians are victims of hate crimes in America. Whenever somebody points to the outsized number of recent antisemitic incidents, Arab advocates cite the Vermont shooting as evidence that Arabs and Muslims are just as much victims as the Jews.
It’s reached the point that when some universities announce they are forming a committee to investigate antisemitism, they also announce one to investigate Islamophobia—as Harvard recently did. Even the Biden administration, after unveiling its U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism, then announced it is preparing a national strategy to counter Islamophobia, too.
But it turns out that Exhibit A of “anti-Palestinian hate” apparently was nothing of the sort.
As early as last December, local media in Vermont reported that the alleged shooter’s social-media accounts included pro-Hamas statements.
The major news media ignored this myth-busting news—until now. The New York Times Sunday Magazine, in its March 3 edition, included a long essay by Rozina Ali, formerly a Cairo-based journalist who now teaches adjunct at New York University. She is writing a book on “the recent history of Islamophobia in the United States.”
The entire theme of Ali’s article in the Times was why we should feel sympathy for the three 20-year-old men, one of them very seriously hurt. Fair enough. Of course, everybody should feel sympathy for any innocent person who is shot.
But deep in the article, in paragraph 30 (out of 41), the text suddenly took a strange turn. “Hate crimes are challenging to prove in court,” Ali wrote. What made this case “even more tricky” was that the alleged shooter, Jason Eaton, said nothing out loud before, during or after the shooting.”
Usually, you know something was a hate crime because the perpetrator yelled a racist slogan or told the police he was motivated to attack the victim because of the victim’s race or religion. Sometimes, the attacker’s social-media accounts contain racist writings.
But in this case, according to author Rozina Ali, it was the exact opposite.
With regard to the Oct. 7 pogrom perpetrated by Hamas in southern Israel that killed 1,200 men, women and children, here’s what the “anti-Palestinian” Eaton wrote on X on Nov. 16: “What if someone occupied your country? Wouldn’t you fight them?”
Although Ali quoted only one of Eaton’s posts, there was at least one more in the same vein. This is what Eaton tweeted on Oct. 17 (which was quoted by the Vermont-based news agency Seven Days on Dec. 6): “The notion that Hamas is ‘evil’ for defending their state from occupation is absurd. They are owed a state. Pay up.”
That crashing sound you hear is the shattering of the myth that the Vermont shooting was Islamophobia. No wonder the police have not charged Eaton with a hate crime: his social-media accounts clearly indicate he is a supporter, not a hater, of the Palestinian Arabs. Ali and others have reported that Eaton has a long history of personal problems. That would seem to be what was behind this crime.
But that didn’t fit the narrative that Palestinian advocates prefer. So, as long as that critical information was confined to the local Vermont press, they could keep claiming that the shooting was “anti-Palestinian hate.” Now the jig is up. It has been acknowledged by The New York Times.
This matters because the fight for public opinion regarding Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip revolves around the question of sympathy. In the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7 mass murders, most of the public’s sympathy was with Israel. But after months of nonstop biased media reporting, some Americans’ sympathies have shifted.
The attention being paid to rising antisemitism creates sympathy for Jews and, by extension, for Israel. Supporters of the Palestinian Arabs want to reduce that sympathy, by claiming that they, too, are the victims of bigotry.
Statistics about hate crimes show that antisemitism is on the rampage, while Islamophobia is minuscule. That reality is bad for the Palestinian cause. So, advocates seize every opportunity to claim that some incident was anti-Arab or anti-Muslim.
Last November, an Ohio man named Hesham Ayyad claimed a driver yelled “Kill all Palestinians!” and “Long live Israel!” at him and then ran him over. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and similar groups yelled “Hate crime!” But security footage showed Ayyad and his brother got into a fistfight on that street corner, which is what caused his injuries. Ayyad has been charged with lying about the incident. CAIR still won’t admit that it was a hoax.
I doubt that CAIR will acknowledge the truth about the Vermont shooting, either. Extremists are reluctant to ever admit that they were wrong about anything. But reasonable people can no longer deny the reality of Jason Eaton’s pro-Hamas posts.
It’s a tragedy when any innocent person is shot. However, people are shot all the time, and their stories almost never make the pages of The New York Times Sunday Magazine. The fact that the three Vermont victims feared it might have been a hate crime is no longer relevant once everyone knows that the perpetrator’s motives had nothing to do with hate—and therefore there is no reason to give them special treatment in the Times or any place else.
The shooter’s own words, written on X before he carried out his crime, clearly indicated that his assault on the young men had no political implications. Any further attempt to exploit it for political purposes is nothing less than fraud.
The post Palestinian ‘Hate-Crime’ Hoax first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War

Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests

A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan

Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.