Reports of hate crimes and harassment targeting Muslims and Jews in the United States have increased following the ongoing deadly conflict between Israel and Hamas.
Since Oct. 7, when Hamas killed more than 1,000 Israelis and took hundreds of hostages in a surprise attack, Israel’s military response has led to thousands more deaths and prompted human rights groups to warn of ethnic cleansing against the Palestinian population in Gaza, where nearly half the populace is children.
That violence has spilled over to the U.S., where Muslims and Jews are being targeted amid fraught conversations about the Israel-Palestine conflict.
On Monday, the Department of Justice announced it would open a hate crime investigation after a white landlord in Chicago, 71-year-old Joseph Czuba, allegedly stabbed his 6-year-old Palestinian American tenant to death.
Czuba had previously built a treehouse for the boy, Wadea Al-Fayoume, and was like a “grandfather” to him, a family friend told NBC News.
“The child, when he saw Czuba, ran to him for a hug and instead was stabbed 26 times,” family friend Yousef Hannon told the publication.
Czuba’s wife told police that her husband “listens to conservative talk radio on a regular basis” and had become obsessed with the war, according to the NBC News report.
In a statement to HuffPost, the Council on American-Islamic Relations said it has identified at least 14 other incidents of anti-Palestinian violence or harassment in the U.S. since the conflict began. | 