Marcos Medeiros
A cowardly and shocking act of violence occurred earlier this week in which Mordechai Brafman,27, a pro-Israel extremist, fired 17 shots at a father and son in Miami Beach, injuring both. Believing he had killed them, he smiled and told police, “I killed two Palestinians.” The attack has drawn widespread condemnation and has exposed the role of Zionism in fueling violence and acts of terrorism not just in the Middle East but in the United States as well. According to reports, Brafman, was motivated by anti-Palestinian sentiment and a perverted sense of loyalty to the Israeli regime.
The event was captured on surveillance footage where Brafman is seen stopping his vehicle in front of the victims, exiting his vehicle and firing 17 shots at them. The attack is believed by authorities to be unprovoked and the victims have no prior connections with Brafman. The incident has lead the Miami-Dade State Prosecutors office to charge Brafman with hate crime charges in addition to two counts of attempted murder.
Ironically, the victims were not Palestinians, but Israeli tourists, and were targeted because Brafman mistook them for Palestinians. In a twisted turn of events, one of the victims then took to social media and wrote “Death to the Arabs”.
The shooting comes at a time of rising anti-Palestinian violence in the US. Notable examples include a Palestinian mother and child stabbed by their landlord in October 2023, three Palestinian students wearing Keffiyehs shot in Vermont last November, a number of pro-Palestine demonstrators in Austin attacked with a knife in February 2024, and a Muslim man attacked at a protest against a real estate event auctioning off Palestinian land in Jerusalem in November 2024.
Photo: Shooter Mordechai Brafman.
