Honoring Wadee Alfayoumi, a 6-year-old Palestinian boy, murdered as a victim of a hate crime for his Palestinian Muslim identity, in the State of Illinois, United States.

Honoring Wadee Alfayoumi, a 6-year-old Palestinian boy, murdered as a victim of a hate crime for his Palestinian Muslim identity, in the State of Illinois, United States.

Whereas Wadee Alfayoumi, a 6-year-old Palestinian Muslim-American boy, was loved by his family and friends as an energetic, loving, and joyous light who brought sunshine to his loved ones and classmates;

Whereas, on October 16, 2023, at 11:30 a.m., Wadee Alfayoumi was brutally stabbed 26 times by a hate-driven perpetrator and tragically succumbed to his injuries;

Whereas Wadee Alfayoumi’s perpetrator has been indicted for a hate crime by the Will County, Illinois, grand jury, as there is evidence the perpetrator yelled during the brutal killing, “All Muslims should die” and has been observed to be a consumer of media containing dehumanizing and hateful rhetoric that was anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian;

Whereas Wadee Alfayoumi’s family wanted the United States to be his home and to provide Wadee a life of safety away from dehumanizing and hateful rhetoric toward Palestinian people, and it is a tragedy that the same dehumanization Wadee’s family sought to escape abroad contributed to the loss of his life in the United States;

Whereas no one should be a target of hate because of their ethnicity or religion, expressed verbally or through how one dresses including, but not limited to, the wearing of a hijab, keffiyeh, turban, mitpahat, tichel, shpitzel, sheitel, kippah, and yarmulke;

Whereas dehumanizing misinformation and disinformation fuels sentiments of hate that result in violence against those who belong or who are perceived to belong to a certain ethnic or religious group;

Whereas the Palestinian community’s migration to the United States dates back to the late 19th century;

Whereas the United States is home to one of the largest Palestinian diasporas in the world that is made up of lawyers, doctors, teachers, business owners, law enforcement, and others, all who contribute to the history, arts, commerce, promise, and character of this great Nation;

Whereas Wadee Alfayoumi shared a heritage, history, love, culture, tradition, and brilliance belonging to the Palestinian people and was a symbol of another great Palestinian life full of promise;

Whereas Palestinian children, Israeli children, United States children, and all children across the globe deserve to live in peace and be free from discrimination, hate crimes, and violence; and

Whereas the Israel-Hamas war has had a devastating impact on children, at one point the war resulting in a child dying every 10 minutes, according to the World Health Organization: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved,