A GoFundMe has has been set up for San Francisco-born Hisham Awartani (center). The 20-year-old who was shot, along with two college friends in Burlington, Vt. on Saturday, Nov. 25, 2023. (GoFundMe "Support For Hishams Recovery" https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-for-hishams-recovery)
BURLINGTON, Vt. - The parents of a young San Francisco-born Palestinian man, paralyzed after being shot along with two college friends in Vermont over the Thanksgiving weekend, said they had decided their son would remain in the U.S. over the holidays, thinking it would be safer than returning to his war-torn home.
Hisham Awartani and his childhood friends, Kinnan Abdalhamid and Tahseen Ali Ahmad, all age 20, were on a walk on Nov. 25, near Awartani’s uncle’s house in Burlington, following a kids' party for his twin nephews, when a man approached the trio and opened fire.
"We are thankful that all three will survive this attack, and Hisham's friends are expected to make a full recovery. For Hisham, however, one of the bullets that struck him is lodged in his spine and has left him paralyzed from the chest down," Hisham Awartani’s friends and family said in a GoFundMe established to help pay for his medical and recovery expenses.
Awartani was born in San Francisco, and his family moved to the West Bank when he was a child. He attended a Quaker institution known as the Ramallah Friends School, where the other two shooting victims were also students.
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Awartani returned to the States to study mathematics and archeology at Brown University in Rhode Island. His friends, Abdalhamid is at Haverford College in Pennsylvania, and Ahmad is a student at Trinity College in Connecticut.
"Tragic irony is not even the right phrase, but to have them come stay with me for Thanksgiving and have something like this happen speaks to the level of civic vitriol, speaks to the level of hatred that exists in some corners of this country. It speaks to a sickness of gun violence that exists in this country," Awartani’s uncle, Rich Price, said in an interview with the Associated Press.
Awartani's mother, Elizabeth Price, told NPR that when the Israel-Hamas war broke out in October, her husband felt their son should not leave the U.S. to go home for the holidays.
"He thought our son would be safer than in Palestine," Price said, adding that she and her husband were working to travel from Ramallah in the West Bank to be with their son in Vermont.
On the GoFundMe, family and friends said that after the shooting, Awartani's first thoughts were for his injured friends and then came worry for his parents who were thousands of miles away.
Awartani and his friends were speaking in both English and Arabic, and two of the trio were wearing the traditional black-and-white Palestinian keffiyeh scarves when they were shot, according to police.
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San Francisco-born college student among victims of possible hate crime shooting in Vermont
Hisham Awartani, who was born in San Francisco, and his childhood friends, Kinnan Abdalhamid and Tahseen Ali Ahmad, all age 20, were on a walk on Nov. 25, near Awartani’s uncle’s house in Burlington, following a kids' party for his twin nephews, when a man approached the trio and opened fire.
Jason J. Eaton, 48, was later arrested and charged with three counts of attempted murder. The attack was also being investigated as a possible hate crime.
Last week, a vigil was held on the Brown University campus, where a professor shared with the crowd a statement from Awartani, according to the Brown Daily Herald, the university's student newspaper.
"It’s important to recognize that this is part of the larger story. This hideous crime did not happen in a vacuum," Professor Beshara Doumani read. "I am but one casualty in this much wider conflict."
In the statement, the injured student expressed his appreciation for those who were there holding vigil for him and asked them to also consider his Palestinian people suffering in the Israeli-Hamas conflict.
"Had I been shot in the West Bank, where I grew up, the medical services that saved my life here would likely have been withheld by the Israeli army… I understand that the pain is so much more real and immediate because many of you know me, but any attack like this is horrific, be it here or in Palestine," Doumani shared,
Friends and family said that Awartani faced a long road of rehabilitation, ongoing care and other adaptive needs, with costs expected to be upwards of $1 million in the first year alone, and they said that the college student was remaining strong.
"He has demonstrated remarkable courage, resilience and fortitude - even a sense of humor - even as the reality of his paralysis sets in," they shared.
GoFundMe organizers noted that the money raised would go toward Awartani’s care but said that if their prayers were answers and his recovery did not require the full amount donated, the money would go toward a foundation to support "the most vulnerable members of his community who have not benefited from the humanizing media attention that has given Hisham this opportunity for recovery."
They described Awartani as someone who will change the world, and despite this tragedy, they held firm to that belief in the 20-year-old, saying his compassionate spirit would be far-reaching and profound.
"He'll change the world through his spirit, his mind and his compassion for those much more vulnerable than himself," his family shared, "especially the thousands of dead in Gaza and many more struggling to survive the devastating humanitarian crisis unfolding there."
The Associated Press contributed to this story, which was reported from Oakland, Calif.