Attempted to murder students wearing keffiyehs - and was convicted

A Vermont jury convicted Jason Eaton of attempted murder of three Palestinian-American students he shot in November 2023 in Burlington. The three, who grew up in Judea and Samaria, were wearing keffiyehs. Eaton pleaded insanity but the jury rejected the claim. He faces up to life in prison.

A Vermont court convicted Jason Eaton of attempted murder of three Palestinian-American students, in an incident that occurred on November 25, 2023, in Burlington. Hisham Awartani, Tahseen Ali-Ahmad, and Kinan Abdel Hamid, who grew up in Judea and Samaria, were walking through the city streets during a visit to Awartani's grandmother. They were wearing black-and-white keffiyehs and speaking in English and Arabic. Eaton approached and shot all three. Ali-Ahmad was hit in the chest, Abdel Hamid was shot in the buttocks while trying to flee, and Awartani was shot in the chest and left paralyzed from the chest down. At trial, Eaton did not deny the shooting but pleaded insanity. His defense attorneys explained that he acted on instructions received via radio waves from American and Israeli intelligence, and that God asked him to protect his Jewish neighbors. The jury rejected these claims and convicted him on three counts of attempted second-degree murder. The prosecutor noted that Eaton faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole, with a minimum of 20 years in prison on each count. The students' families said in a joint response: "Justice has come to light, we feel relief." The incident occurred against the backdrop of a rise in reports of hate crimes in the US since the outbreak of the war in Gaza in October 2023.