A US court sentenced Joseph Choba to 53 years in prison for the murder of 6-year-old Palestinian-American boy Wadih al-Fayoumi and the attempted murder of his mother, Hanan Shaheen. The stabbing sparked widespread outrage and was classified as one of the worst hate crimes in the United States in 2023.
The Chicago Sun-Times reported on Friday evening that the crime occurred in October 2023, just days after the outbreak of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip.
According to prosecutors, the motive behind the crime was religious hatred and anti-Muslim sentiment, amid a marked rise in hate speech, anti-Islam and anti-Arab sentiment, as well as anti-Semitism, in the United States since the outbreak of the war.
Authorities said Choba, 73 years , of Illinois and the owner of the property where the family lived, stabbed Wadih 26 times with an 18-centimeter (7.5-inch) serrated blade before attacking his mother, Hanan, and seriously wounding her.
The crime took place in Plainfield, a town about 40 miles southwest of Chicago.
During his trial last February, Hanan Shaheen testified that Choba shouted at her, “As a Muslim, you must die,” before stabbing her and her son.
The crime sparked widespread condemnation within American society and among human rights activists, who warned of a rise in hate crimes against Arabs and Muslims, particularly Palestinians, since the outbreak of the war on Gaza.
The United States has recently witnessed several other alarming incidents, including the attempted drowning of a three-year-old Palestinian-American girl and the stabbing of a Palestinian-American man, both in Texas.
Several hate crimes have also been recorded during protests and demonstrations supporting or opposing the war on Gaza.
