A Year After Being Shot in Vermont, Palestinian Student Hisham Awartani Sets His Sights on Home

Notes from America with Kai Wright

College student Hisham Awartani, 21, was visiting family in Vermont over Thanksgiving break in 2023 when he and two of his friends were shot. All three victims are of Palestinian descent and were wearing traditional Palestinian scarves when the attack happened. Awartani and the other two young men, Kinnan Abdalhamid and Tahseen Ali Ahmed, all survived. However, Awartani was left paralyzed from the waist down and over the past year, he’s been learning how to live a new life that involves using a wheelchair.

Over that year, Notes From America has spent time with Awartani, following his physical recovery and the emotional hurdles he’s grappled with at Brown University where he became a reluctant poster child of the movement for the university to divest from companies associated with the Israeli military.

As Awartani prepares to return home to the West Bank for the first time since his injury, producer Suzanne Gaber takes us through his year in recovery and what he hopes for next as the war in his homeland continues to escalate.

Series Coverage of Hisham Awartani's Story:

A Palestinian-American Victim of American Gun Violence Becomes A Reluctant Poster Child (February 19, 2024)

Still In Recovery From Being Shot, Hisham Awartani Commits To a Summer of Activism (June 6, 2024)

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Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.