As Washington watches Israel execute a punishing campaign in Gaza, the Michigan Democrat confronts the limits of her influence
January 10, 2024 at 9:00 a.m. EST
“I was so uncomfortable,” Bush recalled in an interview. “No one deserves to be told what they mean.”
The House had convened that evening, Nov. 7, to punish Tlaib for rhetoric she’d used in response to the Israel-Hamas war — in particular, for a video she had posted to social media that included footage of pro-Palestinian protesters chanting “from the river to the sea,” part of a slogan many supporters of Israel consider to be a call for the eradication of the country. Amid the backlash, Tlaib had tried explaining that the slogan was not about belligerence, but peace. Among Palestinians, she said, the phrase — from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free, in its entirety — refers to the territory between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, home to Israel and the Palestinian territories of Gaza and the West Bank. To Tlaib, it is “an aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence, not death, destruction, or hate,” she wrote in another post.
That night, she wore a kaffiyeh draped over her purple blazer and clutched a wood-framed photograph of her 94-year-old grandmother, who lives in a village in the West Bank. When it was her turn to speak, she placed the photo of her sity, beaming under a headscarf, in front of her lectern. It was a visual aid for Tlaib’s broader point — one the congresswoman feared her colleagues had missed in their scramble to condemn her.
“I can’t believe I have to say this, but Palestinian people are not disposable,” she said, her voice breaking. “We are human beings. Just like anyone else.”
Once the votes were tallied — 234 to 188, with 22 Democrats joining Republicans in issuing an official reprimand — Bush said, “Come with me, Rashida.” She whisked Tlaib out of the chamber and down a nearby staircase, where the journalists wouldn’t find her. “She needed to be able to have some time to herself,” Bush said. “I just didn’t even want people stopping her trying to ask, ‘How do you feel?’ and all of that. Because I think about how I would have felt at that moment.”
How does it feel to be Tlaib right now? The Michigan Democrat, born in Detroit to Palestinian immigrants, is the first and only Palestinian American member of a Congress — a body that is, like the rest of the U.S. government, very pro-Israel. That distinction has made Tlaib both a powerful figure and a solitary one. To her, “Palestine isn’t a political issue,” says Abbas Alawieh, a former top aide in Tlaib’s congressional office who was born in Lebanon. “For her, it’s her mother, her grandmother. That personal connection makes it such that Palestinian humanity is not theoretical. It’s part of her own understanding of being a human.”
During her five years in Congress, her vocal criticism of Israel has led to accusations of antisemitism by colleagues — accusations that, according to Tlaib and her allies, reflect a misreading of who she is and what she means.
The experience of having her remarks picked apart, taken out of context and read with suspicion has made Tlaib wary of the press, and she declined to be interviewed for this article. Instead, she agreed to provide written answers to questions, wanting time to reflect and carefully choose her words to make sure they expressed how she truly felt, she said.
“Most of my colleagues have probably never served with a Palestinian or Muslim before,” Tlaib wrote. “Maybe that’s why when I share my experiences as a Muslima in America, as a proud granddaughter of a Palestinian living under apartheid, I can feel their discomfort and even hate. But I always tell my colleagues that my door is always open to them. I am always here to sit down with them and answer their questions and share my lived experiences.”
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