A rare hate crime indictment has been filed against Alexandra Szustakiewicz, a 64-year-old Jewish woman from Illinois, for allegedly attacking a Palestinian-American family during lunch over the father’s shirt, which had to caption "Palestine."
The incident, captured by the victim and widely circulated on social media, has sparked a national debate in the U.S. about racism and discrimination amid the war in Gaza.
Wassam Zahran and his pregnant wife entered a Panera Bread restaurant in Downers Grove, a quiet suburb of Chicago. Zahran was wearing a hoodie emblazoned with "Palestine." According to police, Szustakiewicz immediately approached them, hurling racial slurs and declaring, "Palestine is my land, not yours," and, "This is America. You can’t wear that here." She allegedly tried to strike Zahran’s wife, throw coffee at her and attack her with a set of keys.
"Stay away from my wife!" Zahran could be heard shouting in the background of the video. "She’s pregnant," he yelled, moments before deflecting the coffee cup from Szustakiewicz’s hand.
Local police began an investigation that quickly led to severe charges: two counts of hate crimes and a disorderly conduct charge. “Every individual deserves to be treated with respect, regardless of race, religion or other characteristics. Actions like this and the prejudices that fuel them have no place in a civilized society,” DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin said.
Following the attack, Zahran expressed shock but vowed to continue wearing the shirt with pride. “I’m proud to be Palestinian. I love my country, America and I love Palestine. We need to be human. The heart should speak,” he said.
The assault drew widespread condemnation, particularly from organizations advocating for the rights of Muslims and Arabs in the U.S. The Chicago chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) released a statement saying, “We have long seen how European migrants like this woman feel a bizarre sense of entitlement to regularly harass and accost native Palestinians in their ancestral homeland.”
“Now, shockingly but not surprisingly, that same anti-Palestinian hatred has followed them into their new homeland, here in America, where they were born and raised,” it added.
CAIR’s annual report, published earlier this year, highlights a record number of complaints about racism and discrimination targeting Muslims, with over 8,000 cases in 2023 alone. Nearly half of these incidents occurred in the final three months of the year, following the outbreak of the Gaza war.
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This case adds to a series of incidents that have shaken the U.S. since the war began. In October 2023, a six-year-old Palestinian-American boy was murdered in Illinois by a neighbor who blamed him for Hamas' attack on Israel. In another hate crime earlier this year, a Texas woman attempted to drown a three-year-old Palestinian toddler.