EXCLUSIVE: Rashida Tlaib Speaks to Zeteo on Netanyahu's Visit to D.C.
“It was that moment where, for me, it was like, ‘Oh, no, not on our soil. You will not attack our citizens.’”
"My mom got me a whole outfit, but I was like 'Mom, I can't wear that one," Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib told Zeteo on Wednesday. Instead, she wore the outfit's belt – a Palestine-inspired sash – and a similarly-inspired keffiyeh draped around her neck also gifted by her mother.
What could have been a warm gift, a token of culture, was instead a display of existence – a signal that something in the world was askew. On Wednesday, Tlaib spent her birthday surrounded by colleagues applauding and cheering for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – the man who has overseen the mass killing of her people.
“I feel like me being there shows we exist – Palestinians exist. We are members of Congress,” said Tlaib, who sat down with Zeteo for a wide-ranging interview not long after Netanyahu’s address to the joint session on Congress. “Our families deserve to grow old. They deserve human rights.”
Dozens of Democrats boycotted the alleged war criminal’s appearance, while a smattering of those who attended projected stony or unconvinced expressions. Others, however, joined Republicans in ceaselessly applauding.
Tlaib, the only Palestinian-American in Congress, was the lone lawmaker in attendance who sent an explicit message that’s now been seen around the world. "WAR CRIMINAL" and "GUILTY OF GENOCIDE," read a double-sided sign she held up as Netanyahu pressed for more U.S. weapons to "finish the job" in Gaza after more than nine months of war and over 39,000 Palestinians killed.
Tlaib called it her "Cori Bush church fan,” referring to the Missouri representative who has also been steadfast in criticizing the Israeli government’s human rights violations. The pair have held similar signs in the past.
“It’s our way of speaking truth to power,” Tlaib told Zeteo. “But also, the call out for what it is. He's a war criminal,” she said. “It's a war crime to bomb schools. It's a war crime to kill journalists.”
“You Will Not Attack Our Citizens”
One particular moment that prompted Tlaib to lift the sign was when Netanyahu “attacked Americans.”
During the nearly hour-long address, the foreign leader went on a tirade against American anti-war protesters, falsely suggesting they were “Iran’s useful idiots” who know little about history or geography.
Shocked, Tlaib thought to herself: “Oh my God, there [are] American families out there, their families were impacted. There [are] families of hostages out there… These are people that are out there protesting his policies and saying, ‘Enough. Not in our name.’”
Netanyahu, Tlaib said, “was getting so angry at not only the International Criminal Court, but Americans – from doctors and people on the ground who saw it firsthand: bullet holes and … white phosphorus on children's bodies that they've never” seen before.
“These are images being submitted to the United Nations and other institutions that are coming out and proving over and over again, that the Israeli government is committing genocide, they are committing war crimes,” she added. “It was that moment where, for me, it was like, ‘Oh, no, not on our soil. You will not attack our citizens.’”
But in the room, Netanyahu’s attacks against protesters energized Republicans and a handful of Democrats, including Michigan Rep. Shri Thanedar and Sens. John Fetterman (Penn.), Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.), and Joe Manchin (W.V.), who all stood to applaud.
Tlaib said she was “really taken aback” that people stood up. “Those are your constituents! Those are your residents! Those are the people we serve!... We allowed a leader of a foreign country to attack fellow Americans,” she said. “They're exercising their right to dissent. That's our democracy.”
But the reaction to Netanyahu’s attacks against the protesters echoes how university administrations — spurred by U.S. officials — have responded to student demonstrations. The pro-Palestinian protests that swept college campuses nationwide routinely met condemnation from politicians and violent police responses.
“[A]ll of the advocates out there, the people that came from all over the country to say, ‘not on our watch.’ They did the most patriotic, most beautiful thing in speaking truth and pushing against an institution that right now is turning a blind eye to a genocide.”
Since being elected in 2018, Tlaib herself has weathered attacks and condemnation from both sides of the aisle for her own speech and acts advocating for the recognition of Palestinian humanity.