‘No Sentence Would Satisfy Family of Wadee,' 6-Year-Old Palestinian Killed in Islamophobic Attack in US
Rabat — Last week marked the much-anticipated final verdict against Joseph Czuba, a 73-year-old man who received a sentence of 53 years in prison for the heinous Islamophobic murder of Wadee Alfayoumi.
A judge sentenced him on Friday last week, for the Islamophobic attack against the 6-year-old boy – whom he stabbed 26 times – and his mother in 2023. The boy was killed and the mother was sent to the hospital in critical condition.
The judge acknowledged the attack was motivated by anti-Muslim hate.
Czuba, who was the landlord of Wadee and his mother, committed the attack in October 2023, amid the start of Israel's genocidal war on Palestinians.
Judge Amy Bertani Tomczak said that the killing of Wadee and the stabbing of his mother was 'brutal and heinous.'
The perpetrator's defense claimed that the man who was arrested following the killing of Wadee and the stabbing of his mother in cold blood did not receive a 'fair trial.'
However, Wadee Alfayoumi's great-uncle, Mahmoud Yousef, told the court following the sentence that no verdict is going to justify or satisfy the family.
'The day he was killed, his father had memories, had plans for his son,' the uncle said, as reported by NBC News.
Hanan Shaheen, Wadee's mother, said during the trial that Czuba told her 'you, as a Muslim, must pay.'
The Chicago Office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations issued a statement on the court judgment last week, welcoming the verdict against Czuba for his involvement in a hate crime.
'No sentence can restore what was taken, but today's outcome delivers a necessary measure of justice,' Executive Director of CAIR Chicago, Ahmed Rehab said.
He added that Wadee was targeted because of his religion and also because he was Palestinian.
'Our work now is to ensure that no other child suffers from the deadly consequences of hate,' he said, adding that boys and girls like Wadee are mass murdered weekly in Gaza.
'But rather than being brought to justice, their killers are protected by the majority of our politicians and whitewashed by much of our media,' said.
Wadee's grandfather, quoted by CAIR, asked Czuba to explain his actions.
'We deserve for Mr. Joseph to explain his act… One stab was not enough. When he sat on top of him, what did he think?' the grandfather said.
In response to the attorney's claims that Czubas' heinous murder was out of rage following news on the attacks on Israel, the grandfather asked: 'What type of news did he hear-on TV, radio, or whatever- that made him do such an unheard-of crime?' Tags: criminalization of islamophobiaFighting Islamophobia
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Morocco World
3 hours ago
- Morocco World
Israel Places Occupied West Bank Under Siege Amid Escalations with Iran
Rabat — As Israel escalates its war with Iran—initiated by Israel last Friday—the occupying regime has imposed a harsh lockdown on the West Bank. Entrances to Palestinian cities and villages are sealed off with iron gates and concrete barriers, trapping communities under siege. Beyond these closures, Israel has drastically restricted Palestinian movement through an intensified network of checkpoints, severely limiting entry and exit across large swaths of the territory. Palestinian sources confirm a surge in Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) presence in key West Bank cities including el-Bireh and Ramallah, while stringent checkpoints cripple movement in Nablus, Hebron, Qalqilya, and the Jordan Valley. Farmers in these regions are unable to tend their land or transport produce, as Israeli-imposed barriers choke the local economy. 'The ongoing closures have paralyzed daily life across the West Bank, severely restricting mobility, cutting off access to essential services, and devastating economic activity,' reports the Palestinian News and Info Agency, Wafa. Local reports detail mounting violence across the West Bank as Palestinians approaching checkpoints have been met with live gunfire, stun grenades, and tear gas from the IOF. In one instance in the Tulkarem refugee camp alone, a 16-year-old was shot in the leg during these brutal crackdowns. Night raids have led to at least 15 arrests, as ambulances face deliberate obstruction preventing critical medical aid from reaching the wounded. 'Even with Israeli military permission, we are held at checkpoints for hours before passage,' explains Fayez Abdel Jabbar, an ambulance driver, to Al Jazeera. 'This morning, one woman waited three hours at a checkpoint. We now have to transfer patients between ambulances just to navigate these brutal restrictions.' These assaults are part of a broader pattern of intensified aggression against Palestinians in the West Bank since January. By mid-2025, more than 40,000 Palestinians have been forcibly displaced, the largest uprooting of indigenous people since the 1967 occupation began. Large-scale demolitions of homes and infrastructure continue unabated. Amnesty International reports an alarming spike in detentions, with over 1,000 Palestinians arrested since the start of the year—a clear tactic of oppression and intimidation by the IOF. Adding to their affliction of life under occupation, Palestinians are also caught in the crossfire of the Israel-Iran conflict, as the indigenous population in the West Bank bear the brunt without protection. Iranian missiles intercepted by Israel have left debris falling in Palestinian areas where no bomb shelters or safety measures exist, exposing civilians to grave danger under Israel's apartheid regime. 'Palestinians are trapped between Iranian projectiles and Israeli missile interceptions,' observes Al Jazeera's correspondent Nida Ibrahim. Meanwhile, footage circulating online shows Israeli settlers chanting the racist anti-Arab slogan, 'May your village burn,' as an Iranian missile struck Tamra near Haifa, killing four Palestinian citizens of Israel. Adding to this brutality, the IOF is forcibly occupying Palestinian homes—expelling families and converting residences into military outposts to shield themselves from Iran's retaliatory attacks–a blatant breach of international law that Israel has grown accustomed to doing without consequence.
Morocco World
5 hours ago
- Morocco World
Israel Condemns Iran's Alleged Targeting of Hospital
Seven days into a conflict triggered by Israel's unprovoked attack on Iranian territory, Iran launched 20 ballistic missiles early Thursday morning, one of which reportedly struck the Soroka Medical Centre in Beersheba, southern Israel. Israeli officials and hospital sources described it as a 'direct hit.' Footage circulating online shows significant structural damage, though the hospital's director confirmed that all staff and patients were safe in fortified shelters, resulting in no serious injuries. The strike came hours after Israel launched fresh airstrikes on Iran — which the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) claimed were aimed at nuclear facilities — continuing to frame their aggression as 'retaliatory.' In contrast, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said its missile barrage was a precise attack on military infrastructure, not civilian targets. Iranian sources emphasized that any damage to the hospital was caused by shockwaves and denied that civilian infrastructure was deliberately targeted. Human shields and war crimes Iranian outlets also noted that Soroka Hospital sits between two key Israeli military installations — the IOF's main intelligence headquarters and a central command facility located in the Gav-Yam Technology Park. These sites reportedly serve as hubs for Israeli cyberwarfare and digital command systems. The proximity of a hospital to such critical military infrastructure raises serious questions about Israel's long-standing practice of embedding civilian sites around military assets — a tactic it routinely accuses others of using. While Iranian officials reiterated the strike's military intent, Israel and its allies rushed to denounce the hospital damage as a war crime — a stunning display of hypocrisy from a state that has spent the past 20 months systematically bombing hospitals across Gaza. Israel has raided medical facilities, kidnapped doctors, and imposed a blockade that denies even basic medical supplies. Palestinian surgeons have been forced to operate without anesthesia, amputating limbs with rudimentary tools under siege. And yet, it is only now — when an Israeli hospital sustains damage — that Israeli leaders rediscover the language of international law. Israel's moral posturing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, currently wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes in Gaza, quickly took to X to vow revenge: 'This morning, Iran's 'terrorist tyrants' launched missiles at Soroka hospital in Beersheba and at a civilian population in central Israel,' he wrote. 'Israel will exact the full price from the tyrants in Tehran.' Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel echoed Netanyahu, claiming: 'Iran just hit Soroka Hospital in Be'er Sheva with a ballistic missile. Not a military base. A hospital. Deliberate. Criminal. Civilian target.' Haskel has consistently defended Israel's genocide in Gaza and dismissed international condemnations as 'blood libel.' She also baselessly accused 10,000 UNRWA staff of being Hamas members — a falsehood that helped justify the defunding of a vital lifeline for besieged Palestinians. Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz said that the IOF has been instructed to escalate operations, warning of intensified strikes on what he called 'strategic targets in Iran and against government targets in Tehran.' Katz, continuing the state's hypocritical messaging, accused Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei of committing war crimes: 'These are war crimes of the most serious kind – and Khamenei will be held accountable.' This comes from the same minister who personally oversaw the complete humanitarian blockade on Gaza, manufacturing starvation for over two million people. Katz later issued a direct threat to Khamenei: 'Khamenei openly declares that he wants Israel destroyed – he personally gives the order to fire on hospitals. He considers the destruction of the state of Israel to be a goal, such a man can no longer exist.' A tale of two narratives While Iran has denied deliberately targeting the hospital, many observers have pointed out that — even if it had —the strike would be considered 'legitimate' by Israel's own warped logic. Israel routinely labeled every hospital in Gaza a Hamas 'command center' and used that claim to justify repeated attacks on Gaza's medical infrastructure, despite never providing credible evidence. In fact, as Israel prepared for potential Iranian strikes, hospitals across the country activated emergency protocols and moved patients to underground shelters. Footage circulating online appears to show armed Israeli soldiers taking cover alongside medical staff in hospital basements—exposing Israel's own use of the very tactics it falsely accuses others of employing. International media swiftly echoed Israel's narrative, reporting on the strike as a hospital attack by Iran — a level of outrage and clarity that has been consistently absent in coverage of Israel's relentless bombing of Gaza's hospitals. When Palestinian hospitals are attacked , the language softens: murders become 'deaths,' baseless Israeli accusations are parroted without evidence, and Israel itself is often omitted as the perpetrator. Also missing from headlines are Israel's recent attacks on Iranian hospitals. In recent days, Israeli airstrikes targeted two civilian hospitals in Tehran and Kermanshah — a flagrant act that has drawn little international condemnation and even fewer headlines. According to the Iran-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), Israel's strikes have killed at least 639 people and injured 1,329. Meanwhile, reporting from Jordan due to being banned from Israel and the occupied West Bank, Al Jazeera said six Israelis are in critical condition following Iran's attacks on Thursday. The Israeli death toll remains officially at 24 — a figure shrouded in media ambiguity, as Israel appears to both conceal the scale of its own losses and exaggerate civilian targeting to amplify its victim narrative.
Morocco World
a day ago
- Morocco World
US Threatens to Add 36 More Countries to Controversial Travel Ban List
Rabat – US President Donald Trump's controversial immigration policies continue as his administration is planning to add 36 countries to the travel ban list. This means that citizens from 36 additional countries will be banned from entering the US, Reuters said, citing an internal State Department cable it reviewed. This comes after Trump signed a proclamation that banned the entry of citizens from 12 countries. An internal diplomatic cable signed by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio identified over 36 more countries that will be subject to an entry ban. 'The Department has identified 36 countries of concern that might be recommended for full or partial suspension of entry if they do not meet established benchmarks and requirements within 60 days,' the cable reviewed by Reuters reportedly said. The countries identified reportedly did not facilitate the return of their nationals subjected to deportation orders. 'Some countries were overstaying the U.S. visas their citizens were being granted,' Reuters reported, noting that some of the individuals that are sought to be removed were allegedly involved in acts of terrorism, or anti-Semitic and 'anti-American activity.' 'The Department of State is committed to protecting our nation and its citizens by upholding the highest standards of national security and public safety through our visa process,' a senior State Department official told Reuters, noting that the State Department is constantly reevaluating policies to ensure the safety of foreign and American citizens. The list of countries that could face a full or partial ban if they do not meet US requirements includes Angola, Cote d'Ivoire, Egypt, Gabon, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Ghana, the Gambia, Burkina Faso, Benin, Bhutan, Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Senegal, among others. The aforementioned countries will have to address US concerns within the next 60 days to avoid being added to the travel ban list. The 12 countries that are already affected by the travel ban include Congo Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, as well as Chad, Myanmar, and Afghanistan. Countries like Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela face partial travel restrictions. Tags: travel bantravel ban list
