In a disturbing incident, a 27-year-old man identified as Mordechai Brafman shot at two Israeli tourists, believing them to be Palestinian Muslims. The shooting occurred in the United States’s Florida Miami Beach on Saturday night February, 15.
According to the reports, the man fueled with anti-Palestinian hate made a sudden U-turn in front of the victim’s car and opened fire, discharging 17 rounds from his vehicle, leaving the Israeli tryourts severely injured.
After the shooting, Florida authorities launched a massive search operation and arrested Brafman on Sunday. He was subsequently charged with two counts of attempted murder, according to the website of Miami-Dade County Corrections.
Victims were enjoying their vacation in the US
The two Israeli victims, Ari Rabey and his father were enjoying their vacation in the US when the incident unfolded. Ari recounted the frightening experience of the attack and said that the bullets hit his shoulder while another grazed his father’s arm.
Ari said that they had stopped their vehicle at a nearby mansion to admire when Brafman suddenly appeared and approached them. “The man shouted boom, boom, boom and started shooting”, Revay was quoted as saying in an interview.
During the police interrogation, the man claimed that he “saw two Palestinians and shot at both”, demonstrating an obvious mistake regarding his targets.
Outrage
This incident has gained extensive public scrutiny as the violent act reveals the troubling trend of hate crime incidents during the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) condemned the attack and a subsequent inflammatory social media post against Arab nationals.
In a statement on Monday, February 17, the national executive director of the Council, Nihad Awad stated “This is just the latest example of the hate targeting the Palestinian-American community in this country and Palestinians in their homeland.”
Hate-based attacks against Palestinians in recent years
The targeted shooting occurred following strict warnings by advocacy groups indicating that anti-Muslim and anti-Semitic hate has surged since the Israel-Hamas war that began on October 7, 2023.
On October 14, 2023, a 71-year-old man killed a six-year-old Palestinian child and seriously wounded his 32-year-old mother in suburban Chicago. The elder accused alleged that he singled out the “Palestinians” because of their religion and as a response to the Hamas group’s resistance against Israel’s military occupation.
Similarly in November 2023, three young Palestinian men were injured after they were shot near a university campus in Vermont.
In another shocking incident that occurred in September 2024, a 41-year-old woman Elizabeth Wolf attempted to drown a three-year-old Palestinian American in Texas. Police said that the woman was motivated by racial hatred.
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