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Vermont Jewish groups condemn shooting of 3 Palestinian students being investigated as a hate crime
(JTA) – Jewish congregations, politicians and campus groups in the Vermont area and beyond condemned Saturday’s shooting of three Palestinian college students in Burlington, an incident authorities are investigating as a possible hate crime.
A 48-year-old Burlington man has been arrested in connection with the shooting of the students, whose names are Hisham Awartani, Kinnan Abdalhamid and Tahseen Ahmed.
At least three area rabbis and three different Hillels were among the voices expressing shock and sadness over the shooting, the latest outbreak of violence in the United States connected to the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who is Jewish, called the violence “shocking and deeply upsetting,” adding, “Hate has no place here, or anywhere.”
“We denounce this horrendous violence in our community. And we denounce any hatred that could lead to an act like this,” the three local rabbis wrote on social media.
“As Jews, we are keenly aware of the impact of violence on minority religious communities, and so we stand in solidarity with our Muslim brothers and sisters at this frightening time,” wrote the rabbis — David Edleson of Temple Sinai, Aaron Philmus of Ohavi Zedek Synagogue and Jan Salzman of Congregation Ruach haMaqom. They added that they had reached out to the local Islamic center president to offer their support.
The students who were shot all graduated from Ramallah Friends School, a Quaker-affiliated private school in the Palestinian West Bank city, according to the school. They attend Brown University in Rhode Island, Haverford College in Pennsylvania and Trinity College in Connecticut.
Two of the students were wearing keffiyehs, traditional Palestinian headscarves, at the time of the shooting, according to local police, and a spokesperson for the families told The New York Times that the men were speaking a mixture of Arabic and English at the time of the attack.
Authorities arrested a suspect, Jason Eaton, on Sunday night and arraigned him on Monday. Eaton, a 48-year-old white Burlington resident, pleaded not guilty to three attempted murder charges for shooting and wounding the men with a handgun, and was ordered held without bail. The Daily Beast, speaking with Eaton’s mother, reported that he works in finance, often reads the Bible and did not discuss the Israel-Hamas conflict during Thanksgiving dinner. Police said Eaton shot at the men without speaking with them, then fled the scene. He pleaded not guilty during an arraignment Monday morning.
Two of the victims are in stable condition while a third has “much more serious injuries,” Burlington police said in a statement. The three men are all 20 years old and were visiting one of the victim’s relatives for the Thanksgiving holiday. Awartani, the Brown student, regularly visited his grandmother and uncle who live in Burlington, according to an NBC News report.
“In this charged moment, no one can look at this incident and not suspect that it may have been a hate-motivated crime,” Burlington police chief Jon Murad said in a statement about the investigation. The U.S. Justice Department’s Vermont district attorney also said that a federal investigation would be opened “to determine whether a federal crime may have been committed.”
The shooting was the most recent major act of violence committed against Palestinians and Jews in the United States since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel. One week following the attack, a 6-year-old Palestinian-American boy was murdered in Illinois in what authorities say was a hate crime. Earlier this month, a Jewish man in Los Angeles died following a physical altercation at dueling pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel protests in Los Angeles; a suspect has been arrested and charged with involuntary manslaughter.
Jews have also been assaulted at Columbia University and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Police have insisted that in the case of another prominent incident, the murder of a Detroit synagogue president, there is no evidence of a hate crime even as the murder remains unsolved and authorities are offering a $15,000 reward for information in the case.
Along with Sanders, Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger and Vermont Rep. Becca Balint, who are also progressive Jews, condemned the shooting in separate statements.
“The City of Burlington has zero tolerance for hate crimes and will work relentlessly to bring the shooter to justice,” Weinberger said in a joint statement with Burlington police. Balint, who recently became one of a small number of Jewish members of Congress to publicly endorse a ceasefire in Gaza, said in a statement that she was “horrified by this violence” and added, “I expect there to be a full investigation into evidence of any hate crime.”
Vermonters for Justice in Palestine, a Burlington-based pro-Palestinian activist group, held a vigil for the injured students Sunday evening. Around 200 people showed up, including members of the Jewish anti-Zionist group Jewish Voice for Peace and area chapters of the campus group Students for Justice in Palestine, according to local reports.
The presidents of the three colleges where the victims are enrolled condemned the attacks on their students.
“I know that this heinous and despicable act of violence — this latest evidence of anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian discrimination and hate spiraling across this country and around the world — will leave many in our community deeply shaken,” Brown President Christina Paxson wrote. She identified the college’s injured student as Awartani and said a campus vigil would be held Monday.
Greater Philly Hillel Network, which oversees the Jewish student union at Haverford College, wrote on Facebook that it was “devastated” to learn of the shooting. Trinity College Hillel also condemned the attack and said it was “saddened and disturbed.” The Hilel that serves Brown University has not made any public comments about the incident.
Although none of the victims are students there, the University of Vermont’s Hillel also condemned the attack in a statement, decrying “any act of hate or violence toward college students based on their race, religion, ethnicity, or belief.” UVM, which is located in Burlington, has been a particular flashpoint for rising tensions between Jewish and Arab groups for years, and has seen a heightened atmosphere since the outbreak of war in the region.
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Former Columbia University President Appointed as UK Economic Adviser
Columbia University administrators and faculty, led by President Minouche Shafik, testified before the US House Committee on Education and the Workforce on April 17, 2024. Photo: Jack Gruber/Reuters Connect
i24 News – British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has named Minouche Shafik, former president of Columbia University, as his chief economic adviser at Downing Street, a move aimed at stabilizing the country’s fragile economy and averting a potential budget crisis.
Shafik, an economist of Egyptian origin with dual British and American nationality, has held senior roles at the Bank of England, the IMF, and the World Bank.
She later led the London School of Economics and was elevated to the House of Lords in 2020.
Her tenure in the United States was more turbulent. Shafik stepped down as president of Columbia University in 2024 after just a year in office, amid fierce criticism over her handling of pro-Palestinian protests following the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023, and the subsequent war in Gaza.
US officials accused her of failing to confront antisemitism on campus, while students and faculty condemned her decision to call in police to dismantle protest encampments.
Since returning to Britain, Shafik has played an active role in policy and cultural institutions. She advised Foreign Secretary David Lammy on international aid reform, has chaired the Victoria & Albert Museum since January, and led the “Economy 2030” inquiry for the Resolution Foundation, where she argued for reforms to the UK’s system of wealth taxation.
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Israel Mulls West Bank Annexation in Response to Moves to Recognize Palestine
The Jordan Valley. Photo: Юкатан via Wikimedia Commons.
Israel is considering annexation in the West Bank as a possible response to France and other countries recognizing a Palestinian state, according to three Israeli officials and the idea will be discussed further on Sunday, another official said.
Extension of Israeli sovereignty to the West Bank – de facto annexation of land captured in the 1967 Middle East war – was on the agenda for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet meeting late on Sunday that is expected to focus on the Gaza war, a member of the small circle of ministers said.
It is unclear where precisely any such measure would be applied and when, whether only in Israeli settlements or some of them, or in specific areas of the West Bank like the Jordan Valley and whether any concrete steps, which would likely entail a lengthy legislative process, would follow discussions.
Any step toward annexation in the West Bank would likely draw widespread condemnation from the Palestinians, who seek the territory for a future state, as well as Arab and Western countries. It is unclear where US President Donald Trump stands on the matter. The White House and State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A spokesperson for Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar did not respond to a request for comment on whether Saar had discussed the move with his US counterpart Marco Rubio during his visit to Washington last week.
Netanyahu’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether the prime minister supports annexation and if so, where.
A past pledge by Netanyahu to annex Jewish settlements and the Jordan Valley was scrapped in 2020 in favor of normalizing ties with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in the Abraham Accords brokered by Trump in his first term in office.
The office of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The United States said on Friday it would not allow Abbas to travel to New York for the United Nations gathering of world leaders, where several US allies are set to recognize Palestine as a state.
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Israel Pounds Gaza City Suburbs, Netanyahu to Convene Security Cabinet
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to the press on Capitol Hill, Washington, DC, July 8, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
Israeli forces pounded the suburbs of Gaza City overnight from the air and ground, destroying homes and driving more families out of the area as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet was set on Sunday to discuss a plan to seize the city.
Residents of Sheikh Radwan, one of the largest neighborhoods of Gaza City, said the territory had been under Israeli tank shelling and airstrikes throughout Saturday and on Sunday, forcing families to seek shelter in the western parts of the city.
The Israeli military has gradually escalated its operations around Gaza City over the past three weeks, and on Friday it ended temporary pauses in the area that had allowed for aid deliveries, designating it a “dangerous combat zone.”
“They are crawling into the heart of the city where hundreds of thousands are sheltering, from the east, north, and south, while bombing those areas from the air and ground to scare people to leave,” said Rezik Salah, a father of two, from Sheikh Radwan.
An Israeli official said Netanyahu’s security cabinet will convene on Sunday evening to discuss the next stages of the planned offensive to seize Gaza City, which he has described as Hamas’ last bastion.
A full-scale offensive is not expected to start for weeks. Israel says it wants to evacuate the civilian population before moving more ground forces in.
HAMAS SPOKESPERSON TARGETED
Netanyahu confirmed on Sunday that Israeli forces had targeted Abu Ubaida, the spokesperson of Hamas’ armed wing. Defense Minister Israel Katz said that Abu Ubaida was killed. Two Hamas officials contacted by Reuters did not respond to requests for comment.
Gaza health authorities said 15 people, including five children, were killed in the attack on a residential building in the heart of Gaza City.
Abu Ubaida, also known as Hozayfa Al-Khalout, is a well-known figure to Palestinians and Israelis alike, close to Hamas’ top military leaders and in charge of delivering the group’s messages, often via video, for around two decades, delivering statements while wearing a red keffiyeh that concealed his face.
The US targeted him with sanctions in April 2024, accusing him of leading the “cyber influence department” of al-Qassam Brigades.
In his last statement on Friday, he warned that the planned Israeli offensive on Gaza City would endanger the hostages.
On Saturday, Red Cross head Mirjana Spoljaric said an evacuation from the city would provoke a massive population displacement that no other area in the enclave is equipped to absorb, with shortages of food, shelter and medical supplies.
“People who have relatives in the south left to stay with them. Others, including myself, didn’t find a space as Deir Al-Balah and Mawasi are overcrowded,” said Ghada, a mother of five from the city’s Sabra neighborhood.
Around half of the enclave’s more than 2 million people are presently in Gaza City. Several thousand were estimated to have left the city for central and southern areas of the enclave.
Israel’s military has warned its political leaders that the offensive is endangering hostages still being held by Hamas in Gaza. Protests in Israel calling for an end to the war and the release of the hostages have intensified in the past few weeks.