Kamala Harris 'Only Official' to Call Palestinian-American Who Lost 150 Family Members in Gaza

Rashida Tlaib's guest for Netanyahu's address was an UNRWA USA staffer who says his "bloodline is being eliminated" by Israel

While nearly half of the congressional Democratic caucus boycotted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress, Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib not only attended, she brought a guest with her: A man who lost some 150 family members in Israel’s war on Gaza. 

Rep. Rashida Tlaib and Hani Almadhoun on the day of Netanyahu’s address to the U.S. Congress. Photo via @RepRashida on X.

Hani Almadhoun is a Palestinian-American who moved to the U.S. on a college scholarship in 2000. He is also the director of philanthropy for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA USA) – an agency tasked with supporting Palestinian refugees, and one that has faced relentless attacks from Israel, long predating Oct. 7. 

In January, as the International Court of Justice ruled that Israel must prevent all acts of genocide, the Israeli government accused several UNRWA staffers, without presenting any evidence, of being involved in Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7. The Israeli Knesset also advanced a bill this week designating UNRWA a terrorist organization. Such was the context surrounding Almadhoun as he sat in the chamber listening to Netanyahu. 

“I felt insulted. And I felt like, ‘Is he talking to a group of idiots?’” Almadhoun told Zeteo. If someone were to fact-check many of Netanyahu’s claims, they’d find them to be a “hot pile of garbage,” he said.

“In this country, people are seeing a different story,” he told Zeteo on watching Netanyahu receive multiple standing ovations during his address. “I felt like ‘Are they seeing the stuff we're seeing?’ You try to be neutral because your job requires you to be neutral, and it's hard because your bloodline is being eliminated.” 

“We Cherish the Memories”

The level of trauma Almadhoun’s family has faced is staggering. 

More than a dozen of his family members were killed in the first bomb that fell on Gaza after Oct. 7, he said. 

“Two weeks later, another 17 family members were killed … but the final blow for me is my brother,” he added, saying his brother and his family were killed in airstrikes an hour and a half before the first truce was called in November. 

“It’s heartbreaking because my brother was killed by American bombs, American airplanes, and he did not deserve to die,” Almadhoun told Zeteo, adding that his brother’s youngest child was 5 years old and loved to dance. 

“Ali, [a] beautiful little child, and they're gone. We cherish the memories,” he said. “We visited Gaza in the summer, and we left seven weeks before October 7 … So, I got to spend time with him not knowing that this is going to be the last time.”

On Saturday, just days before Netanyahu’s speech, Almadhoun says his cousin Radha was also killed by an Israeli strike in the Nuseirat refugee camp, despite her having been told it was a “safe zone.” Her two boys were hospitalized.

Asked whether he had ever been contacted by the Israeli government regarding any of his 151 family members killed, Almadhoun demurred. They’re “going to call everybody Hamas. They call babies and embryos inside moms Hamas. So, I just don’t think I’m going to seek justice from those folks, unless somebody forced them from outside,” he said. 

“My information is online, they’re welcome to [reach out],” he added. “The only person that reached out while my family was being genocided was Vice President Kamala Harris.”

Harris had spoken with Almadhoun in mid-November. She also wrote to him after his brother was killed, which he says he appreciated. 

“Look, when we’re in politics, we’re not looking for prophets. You have to have people who acknowledge your existence," Almadhoun said. But now, even calling for a ceasefire and an end to the killing "is being called political.”

When asked about alleged human rights violations in its ongoing assault in Gaza, the U.S. has often deferred to Israeli-led investigations.

In February, after seeing a video of his sister baking bread from animal feed, he started a GoFundMe page to help kickstart a soup kitchen in Gaza that would help feed people. It has raised nearly $1.4 million so far. It is because of circumstances like this that Almadhoun was left bewildered at the Israeli prime minister’s speech on Wednesday, “I felt like I just landed on a new planet where the facts don't matter, and people are here to just cheer and make up their stuff.”

Netanyahu is “gonna boast about doing whatever,” he continued. “I was taken aback by how excited people were for genocide or for dismissing Palestinian lives, and I just felt like ‘do you not know anything about this? Have you not seen anything?’”

Prem Thakker is Zeteo's new political correspondent. Look out for his upcoming column at Zeteo.