Hanan Shaheen, the mother of slain 6-year-old Plainfield boy Wadee Alfayoumi — who was fatally stabbed in an October 2023 attack that drew hate-crime charges — met President Joe Biden during a visit to the White House as he wrapped up the final days of his presidency. Biden spoke with Shaheen for about 10 minutes, said Maaria Mozaffar, an Illinois-based legislative attorney who accompanied Shaheen to the Oval Office on Tuesday. “We understood the enormity of the moment, and we wanted to be able to deliver every sentiment and statement that the Muslim community would want to deliver,” Mozaffar said. “It’s important to understand that behind every policy and every decision and every political office is a human being, and we were not going to give up an opportunity to have a human-to-human connection.” According to police, Joseph Czuba — the family’s landlord — allegedly stabbed Shaheen dozens of times outside her home and stabbed Wadee 26 times because of their Muslim and Palestinian identity. At the White House, Shaheen and Mozaffar met first with senior administration officials before spending a few moments with Biden. Mozaffar chose to give Biden a Palestinian keffiyeh, an English-language Quran and a wood plank with a Biblical verse saying, “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” The items go far beyond political headlines and news of the Israel-Hamas war, Mozaffar said. She also handed him a letter, which reads in part: “It is indeed dehumanization that allows us to consistently make tolerable the witnessing of the crushing of children under buildings. If such a case occurred in cities like Chicago, New York, Washington, DC, children caught in the crossfires of war to fulfill a military objective, we would say immediately, ‘Find another way as this crosses every red line of who we are as Americans.’” Dr. Thaer Ahmad, an emergency physician from the South Side of Chicago who traveled to Gaza last year and has been outspoken about Wadee’s killing, said the meeting between Shaheen and Biden was a significant moment of recognition. But the timing doesn’t sit well with him. “It’s just unfortunate that it took so long, and I have to be honest — as a father of two little girls and obviously as a Palestinian American — something rubs me the wrong way about it happening in the lame duck final days,” Ahmad said. “It felt like we were working so hard for Wadee to get the attention that any other American kid would get in a tragedy like this, but of course (I support) whatever we can do to keep bringing it back to what happened.” The meeting was a long time coming for Mozaffar, who has been pushing political leaders to talk about Wadee’s killing as representative of the dehumanization of Palestinians and Muslims since the Plainfield attack on Oct. 14. Authorities said Czuba targeted the family after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack in Israel and was radicalized by listening to political commentary a week into the Israel-Hamas war. Czuba was charged with two counts of hate crimes in addition to first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder, and is set for a jury trial next month. 6-year-old fatally stabbedChicago office of the Council on American-Islamic RelationsWadee Alfayoumi, 6, was stabbed to death at his Plainfield Township home on Oct. 14, 2023. Shaheen was hospitalized and Wadee’s death was cemented as a “casualty of false narratives, misinformation and hate,” Mozaffar said, which was fueled by “dangerous political rhetoric used for political expediency at the highest levels of political office.” The private meeting at the White House was both a statement and an opportunity for Biden to confront the issues that arguably defined the final years of his presidency, Mozaffar said, adding that she rehearsed extensively to ensure her words covered the gravity of the last 15 months of war in Gaza and its implications on humanity. A day before the meeting, U.S. officials announced that a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas was imminent, potentially putting a pause on the war in Gaza. And on Friday, The Associated Press reported that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed an agreement for a ceasefire deal had been reached, which could bring relief to a region where nearly 90% of the 2.3 million Gazans have been displaced. Authorities say Israel’s military offensive has killed more than 46,000 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded hundreds of thousands, many of whom are in tent camps along the coast without access to food, medicine and other basic necessities. A new analysis released this month by the Lancet says the death toll in Gaza is actually much higher. Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack killed 1,200 in Israel. Many Palestinians in the Chicago area are hopeful for a lasting agreement that would bring peace to their families in Gaza, but like Bridgeview resident Fidaa Elaydi, they’re heartbroken that so many lives were lost. “There’s so much anger and frustration that the Biden administration didn’t exert their political power to push Israel to come to this agreement sooner,” Elaydi told the Tribune. “So much destruction could have been prevented, and so much heartache and so much sorrow and pain, so much loss … yet he wants to claim this (ceasefire) as his diplomatic win when really it’s a result of his abysmal failure.” In March, dozens of Arab, Muslim and Palestinian American leaders declined a White House request to meet with community organizers in Chicago ahead of the Illinois primary, feeling alienated by Biden’s staunch support of Israel and the flow of U.S. weapons that Israel used to bombard Gaza. Mozaffar declined the meeting as well, explaining that she didn’t think the meeting would amount to impactful policy changes. But after a congressional resolution honoring Wadee — drafted by Mozaffar and sponsored by U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin — passed the Senate unanimously in September, Mozaffar said White House aides contacted her about setting up a phone call between Shaheen and the president on the anniversary of Wadee’s death. Mozaffar urged the president to meet with Shaheen in person during that call. This meeting would be different, Mozaffar said, “if we could connect directly with the president to reaffirm the consequences of dehumanization with someone who is a victim of false narratives, it would have a different impact.” Mozaffar said separate from everything else, the private moment between Shaheen and Biden, who lost a daughter and a son, was centered around shared grief. At the end of their conversation, Shaheen said to the president: “We are connected by God. We both lost children.” [email protected]