Hoax Confirmed: Hating Harouni (2024)
Jewish dentist Benjamin Harouni was fatally shot on 29h February 2024 in the San Diego suburb of El Cajon but what would normally be simply regarded as a fairly straightforward murder is being pushed as an ‘anti-Semitic hate crime’ by some jewish individuals and groups.
The facts of the case are quite simple as the ‘San Diego Union-Tribune’ explains:
‘Harouni, 28, was gunned down Thursday at his family’s El Cajon dental practice, allegedly by 29-year-old Mohammed Abdulkareem, a man El Cajon police described as a “disgruntled” former patient. Police said Abdulkareem also shot and wounded two other people inside the business.’ (1)
Basically Benjamin Harouni – who was jewish and of Iranian extraction – was murdered by a former patient Mohammed Abdulkareem and two other people were also shot and wounded during Abdulkareem attack on Harouni’s office. This should be relatively straightforward given they had a doctor-patient relationship which had apparently gone sour for unknown reasons.
Fair enough you might think, but oh no; the local jewish community has decided once again it is an ‘anti-Semitic hate crime’.
The ‘Times of Israel’ and JTA are screeching that:
‘The brother of a San Diego-area Jewish dentist killed at his office on Thursday says Benjamin Harouni was “murdered in cold blood” in an act of hate and pledged to set up a nonprofit to combat hatred in his memory.
Local police have not declared the incident a hate crime, saying that the motive for the shooting remains under investigation and noting that the alleged murderer appears to have been “a disgruntled former customer” of Harouni’s dental practice.
But Jake Harouni’s Instagram post is emblematic of a coalescing discourse surrounding his brother’s death: Jews and pro-Israel activists say the killing, allegedly at the hands of 29-year-old Mohammed Abdulkareem, was likely an act of antisemitism amid the heated atmosphere surrounding the Israel-Hamas war.
“Those saying this was not a hate crime need to rethink what they define as hate,” Jake Harouni wrote in his post. He added, “As a Persian-Jewish American, I have always felt so scared and vulnerable during these times of hatred. Now that it is at my front door, it feels much more real and urgent.”
Multiple Jewish advocacy groups are demanding that local police investigate whether antisemitism played a role in Dr. Benjamin Harouni’s killing, and his childhood rabbi said at his funeral Sunday morning that he was “struck down in a senseless act of violence, in all likelihood because he was a Jew.”
At a vigil Sunday night, El Cajon Mayor Bill Wells acknowledged fears that law enforcement could obscure antisemitic motivations for the murder but promised to uncover the facts.’ (2)
Interestingly as Joseph Feldman writing for VIN News relates the Anti-Defamation League for once is on the opposite side of this stating that they agree with the police assessment that this had nothing to do with Harouni being jewish and Abdulkareem ostensibly being a Muslim (ergo it wasn’t an ‘anti-Semitic hate crime’) and more to do with… well… a doctor-patient relationship gone bad.
He writes that:
‘Although reports suggested a religious angle, with Benjamin Harouni identified as a member of the Orthodox Jewish faith and Abdulkareem as Muslim, both the police and the Anti-Defamation League dismissed immediate evidence of a hate crime. Investigators characterized Abdulkareem as a “disgruntled” former patient of the dental office.
Addressing concerns about the motive, the El Cajon Police Department asserted, “There is no indication the attack was racially or politically motivated.” The investigation is ongoing, and the community will be informed of any new developments.’ (3)
As Feldman remarks there is no evidence whatsoever that this is an ‘anti-Semitic hate crime’ and allegations that this is the case by Jake Harouni and others are seemingly without any foundation whatsoever and are just another jewish attempt to garner sympathy, support and probably donations for the broader jewish cause.
Unless new evidence and/or information surfaces then we can regard this as yet another fake ‘anti-Semitic hate crime’.
References
(1) https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/public-safety/story/2024-03-03/benjamin-harouni-funeral
(2) https://www.timesofisrael.com/calls-mount-to-investigate-killing-of-san-diego-jewish-dentist-as-%D7%A9-hate-crime/ also https://www.jta.org/2024/03/04/united-states/calls-mount-to-investigate-antisemitism-in-killing-of-san-diego-jewish-dentist-benjamin-harouni
(3) https://vinnews.com/2024/03/02/officials-no-indication-deadly-california-shooting-of-persian-jew-racially-motivated/