Ill.’s PALOS HEIGHTS — After the burial of the 6-year-old Palestinian American boy who was reportedly slain by a landlord, family and friends gathered in a quiet café to remember the boy’s once-promising life.
Wadea Al-Fayoume, who is accused of a hate crime against him and his mother, was remembered on Monday night as a cheerful, energetic, and spunky little boy who had been close to the neighbor and landlord.
Less than two hours after Wadea’s funeral, friends and family met for supper at Al Basha Cuisine in Palos Heights. People who knew Wadea talked about his brief existence here at this tiny café.
“He didn’t have any hate or anger, and he was always on a natural high,” Mohamed Aly, 41, a close friend of the family who first met the boy the day he was born, said during the meal.
Over the traditional Palestinian cuisine of mansaf, which is made with rice and lamb, more than 100 people gathered to commemorate Wadea’s life.
Wadea was stabbed 26 times at his Plainfield home, where he passed away on Saturday. Landlord Joseph Czuba, 71, was detained and charged by the Will County Sheriff’s Office on suspicion of stabbing Wadea and his mother in retaliation for their religion. According to officials, Czuba’s wife informed detectives that her husband had grown fixated on the conflict between Hamas and Israel.
Hanaan Shahin, Wadea’s mother, was stabbed more than a dozen times but is expected to make a full recovery.
The mother and son, according to those present at the meal, resided on the upper level of a townhouse, while the landlord lived at the lower level.
Aly claimed that Czuba embraced the youngster as a grandson in some ways, purchasing him a swing, a trampoline, toys, and gifts. Czuba was known to have multiple signs supporting former president Donald Trump in his yard.
He claimed that despite Odey Al-Fayoume, Wadea’s father, being a Trump supporter, being cautious about them being in Czuba’s home, they persisted.
According to Shahin, Czuba was a “angry” man. Prosecutors claimed in a petition asking for his detention that he addressed Shahin just prior to the assault and “told her he was angry at her for what was going on” in Israel. Czuba “gave her no chance to do anything, according to Shahin, before attacking her with a knife,”
According to the sheriff’s office, Shahin fled into the restroom where she fought off her assailant while yelling for assistance.
Shahin asked her son if he was alright after the attack. Wadea’s final words to his mother before dying were, “I am fine, mama,” according to Aly.
Shahin migrated to the United States 12 years ago from the West Bank, a Palestinian area. Wadea was born in the United States, and her father immigrated here nine years ago.
According to Wadea’s father, they moved to the United States in part to flee violence, according to Ahmed Rehab, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
He stated, “We came here in part to escape the settler violence where incidents like this could happen without consequence, and it chased us all the way to the United States,” according to Rehab on Sunday.
Odey Al-Fayoume was sitting at the head of the next table in the middle of the room, embracing family members and welcoming others as Aly talked.
For this article, he declined to comment. It has all been “like a dream,” he said on Monday’s episode of NBC’s “TODAY” program.
“I still didn’t believe my son is gone,” he said.
Wadea made friends with his son, according to 53-year-old neighbor Abdelbaset Emar, and the two of them watched cartoons to practice their English.
Emar remarked as he departed the supper, “He would come over all the time.”
He continued by saying that both kids enjoyed playing football and collecting action figures.
Wadea’s discharge from the hospital on the day he was born comes to Aly’s mind.
“I observed another angel enter Earth. I saw a baby that was the size of my palm,” Aly remarked.
But there were early struggles in life.
According to friends, Wadea began displaying indicators of special needs at age 3 and was later given an attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder diagnosis.
Yousef Hannon, a 59-year-old family friend, paid for the meal.
I have to take action when a tragedy like this occurs, he declared. “Every Muslim, every Arabic, and every Palestinian is impacted by this hate crime. I’m affected by this.