Durbin holds U.S. Senate hearing on rise in hate crimes, which ends up turning hostile
WASHINGTON (CBS) -- U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) held a long-awaited hearing on Capitol Hill Tuesday, aimed at examining the rising number of hate crimes across America.
In the audience was the mother of Wadee Alfayoumi, the 6-year-old Palestinian American boy who was tragically stabbed to death in Plainfield, Illinois, last fall.
Durbin referenced Wadee's case, and Wadee's mother, Hanan Shaheen, was present as a spectator for the hearing.
"Ms. Shaheen, I'm so sorry for your devastating loss," Durbin said, addressing Wadee's mother in the crowd.
Plainfield landlord Joseph Czuba is accused of stabbing Wadee and his mother last October. The boy was killed.
Czuba told investigators he believed he and his wife "were in danger," because he feared the woman he stabbed "was going to call over her Palestinian friends or family to harm them."
"I also thought about what the 6-year-old boy—I have a 5-year-old granddaughter. I love her like life itself. I cannot imagine this poor little boy answering the door and losing his life because he's Palestinian. My God," Durbin said. "We can't say the things that I've just said in the same sentence without some people saying, 'Well, you've just chosen sides.'"
Many hate crime survivors journeyed to Washington, D.C., for the hearing. But the majority of the U.S. senators who participated in the roughly two-and-a-half-hour hearing chose not to focus on hate crimes against the Palestinian community.
"The Democrat Party is terrified by the pro-Hamas wing of their party," said U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas).
Most Senators shifted focus to Iran, foreign policy, and what they said is unchecked antisemitism experienced on college campuses.
The hearing was hostile at times, with one senator questioning the only Arab American expert, Arab American Institute executive director Maya Berry—even accusing her of supporting Hamas and Hezbollah.
As seen in video from the hearing, U.S. Sen. John Kennedy (R-Louisiana) said to Berry, "You support Hamas, do you not?"
"Senator, oddly enough, I'm going to say thank you for that question, because it demonstrates the purpose of our hearing today," Berry said. "Hamas is a foreign terrorist organization that I do not support. But you asking the executive director of the Arab American Institute that question very much puts the focus on the issue of hate in our country."
Kennedy said he accepted Berry's answer, but then went on to ask Berry if she supported Hezbollah and Iran, which she said she did not—while taking issue with Kennedy's line of questioning and saying Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran were not relevant to the discussion at the hearing. Kennedy accused Berry of not being able to "bring herself to say no" as an answer to his questions.
Kennedy then took issue with Berry's reaction to the decision to cut funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, which Kennedy quoted Berry as calling an "incredible moral failure."
"That is absolutely correct, but I would suggest that conversation is about foreign policy," Berry said.
"We did that because nine UNRWA staff members were fired for actually helping Hamas on October 7," Kennedy said.
"I don't believe that that's correct," Berry said.
Kennedy then said: "Let me ask you one more time—you support Hamas, don't you? You support UNWRA and Hamas, don't you?"
"I think it's exceptionally disappointing that you're looking at an Arab American witness before you and saying, 'You support Hamas,'" replied Berry.
Berry said again, twice, that she did not support Hamas, and said she was very clear in her support of UNRWA.
But as she spoke, Kennedy talked over her, saying: "You know what's disappointing to me? You can't bring herself to say you don't support UNRWA, you don't support Hamas, you don't support Hezbollah, and you don't support Iran. You should hide your head in a bag."
Dr. Dilara Sayeed, president of the Muslim Civic Coalition, traveled from Chicago to D.C. for the hearing with Wadee's mother.
"You know, we were watching a hate- rimes hearing, and I think hate crimes erupted," Sayeed said.
Sayeed said she was not surprised by some of the hostile questioning.
"It really became a very narrow focus. It became about denouncing foreign governments, and Hamas, and Hezbollah," Sayeed said, "and this was about Americans and hate in our nation."
This was despite the intended focus of the hearing that no one hate crime against one particular group is worse than another, and all hate crimes need to be addressed.
"They're politicizing and spewing hate rhetoric, and then we wonder why hate crimes have gone up exponentially in the United States in the last 10 years," Sayeed said.
Even Durbin tried several times to bring the hearing back to that focus.
"What we are trying to do is identify a problem in America that extends beyond the Jewish population, to the Arab population, to the Palestinian population," Durbin said. "All of those hate crimes are unacceptable."
After the hearing, the Council on American Islamic Relations condemned Senator Kennedy's comments as anti-Arab bigotry targeting a respected Arab American leader.
Meanwhile, Sayeed was also upset that not one Republican U.S. senator acknowledged Wadee's mother in the crowd, or gave their condolences to her on her loss.
Sayeed also said despite the tone of the hearing, Wadee's mother's attitude was positive—and she left the hearing saying, "We're going to keep trying."
