Palestinian college students who survived shooting speak out in new interview

Hisham Awartani only remembers hearing gunshots, then falling down. 

When he saw blood on his cell phone, Awartani began to process that he had been shot outside of his grandmother’s home in Burlington, Vt. 

He and his two closest friends were gunned down in November by Jason Eaton, 48, who has since pleaded not guilty to three counts of second-degree attempted murder. 

Kinnan Abdalhamid and Tahseen Ali Ahmad were staying with Awartani’s family over Thanksgiving break. 

The three college students, all Palestinian, at one point decided to go on a walk around the neighborhood. Two of them were wearing a traditional Palestinian headscarf, a keffiyeh, and all of them were speaking a mixture of Arabic and English. 

When they came back, Eaton was standing across the street. 

Awartani was paralyzed by the ordeal. In an interview with NBC, he is joined by Abdalhamid.

“As soon as Tahseen started screaming, I was running,” said Abdalhamid. 

The friends describe the shooting as a hate crime. 

“This is part of a larger systematic issue,” Abdalhamid said. The two disagree with claims that Eaton and his actions are singular. Rather, they say, he is a symptom of a bigger problem. 

In the interview, Awartani and Abdalhamid were joined by their families at the Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Charlestown, Massachusetts. Awartani said he remains grateful for the medical resources afforded to him and reflected on the current situation in Palestine. 

“They can’t even receive the primary care that they need, let alone the rehabilitative care that they deserve,” he said.

Awartani and his friends grew up in the landlocked West Bank, the largest of the two territories in Palestine. While they left their home to escape violence, they were surprised to find it followed them. 

“Growing up in Palestine, this is something I always thought was possible,” said Awartani. “I definitely expected it would happen to me in the West Bank, in Palestine, not in Vermont.”

Awartani’s mother, Elizabeth Price, is American. As she remains by his side at the hospital, she also mourns children have been killed by violence in the U.S. and Palestine. 

“I’m so angry, not at what happened to him, but at the fact that he is being seen as a part of a community that can be exterminated,” she said. 

Want to leave a comment?

Create an Account Or sign in to your account

To comment, please create a screen name in your profile

To comment, please verify your email address

Conversation

This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com