In Hate Crime Trial, Mother of Slain Palestinian American Boy Testifies

Hanan Shaheen walked into an Illinois courtroom on Tuesday and recounted how, within just a few days, her landlord turned against her and her 6-year-old son.https://svtoday.org/2025/02/25/hate-crime-trial-mother-testifies-in-slaying-of-palestinian-american-boy/

For two years, Ms. Shaheen explained, she had experienced no significant issues living in a simple two-bedroom house along a highway in suburban Chicago, paying $300 a month in rent. However, after Hamas launched an attack on Israel in October 2023, she said one of her landlords began expressing hateful views about Muslims and demanded that she move out of the home, where he also resided.

“I told him, ‘Pray for peace,’” said Ms. Shaheen, who is Muslim and originally from Jerusalem.

After that tense exchange, Ms. Shaheen told the court, the landlord, Joseph M. Czuba, forced his way into her room and started stabbing her with a knife, injuring her in the chest, back, and head. After fleeing to the bathroom to call 911, she said Mr. Czuba fatally attacked her son, Wadee Alfayoumi, a kindergartner who had just celebrated his birthday. She recalled hearing the boy cry, “Stop, oh no.”

“I was sitting on the floor, talking to the police, and I felt like I was going to die any second,” Ms. Shaheen said on Tuesday, as the trial began in Mr. Czuba’s case, which involves charges of murder and hate crimes. Mr. Czuba, 73, has pleaded not guilty.

The attack on Ms. Shaheen and the murder of Wadee, who was Palestinian American, garnered worldwide attention and left many members of Illinois’s Palestinian and Muslim communities fearful and outraged. Some community leaders linked the attack to inflammatory rhetoric from certain U.S. politicians and media figures that they argued dehumanized Palestinians.

Prosecutors described Mr. Czuba in court documents as angry, paranoid, and violent, noting that he had been listening to media coverage of the Middle East conflict and had grown increasingly worried about his own safety due to his Muslim tenants.

“This happened because the defendant was afraid that a war that began on October 7, 2023, halfway around the world in the Middle East, was going to come to his doorstep,” prosecutor Michael Fitzgerald told the jury. “This happened because Hanan and Wadee were Muslim.”

On Tuesday, Mr. Czuba was wheeled into the brightly lit courtroom in Joliet, Ill., and walked to his defense table. He remained silent, facing Ms. Shaheen, who identified him as the attacker, while the gallery of spectators stood behind her.

One of Mr. Czuba’s attorneys, Kylie Blatti, reminded the jury that “Joseph Czuba is presumed innocent of all charges” and that in cases like this, “assumptions cannot be made.”

The Chicago area is home to a large Palestinian American community, with a suburban region known for its many Arab restaurants and shops, often referred to as Little Palestine. Wadee and his mother lived in Plainfield Township, about 40 miles southwest of downtown Chicago, near a Chevrolet dealership and a barbecue restaurant. At the time of the attack, their home displayed several American flags and an ad for organic honey.

Investigators revealed that Wadee, a Lego-loving soccer fan whose name is sometimes spelled Wadea Al-Fayoume, was stabbed 26 times and later pronounced dead at the hospital. Ms. Shaheen, then 32, was stabbed over a dozen times and was hospitalized in critical condition.

In court, Ms. Shaheen calmly recounted her experience on the witness stand, occasionally asking the Arabic interpreter beside her for clarification. She described her attempt to fight back against Mr. Czuba, even briefly wresting the knife from him and stabbing him before he regained control of the weapon.

“I started pushing him back, pulling his hair, and he said, ‘You must die,’” Ms. Shaheen testified. “And then I looked at my son, and he was terrified in the hall.”

When the audio from Ms. Shaheen’s 911 call was played, she was heard telling the dispatcher that she could hear