Kuwait Times

Rashida Tlaib, US lawmaker at the center of uproar

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WASHINGTON: No sooner had Rashida Tlaib been sworn in as a member of the 116th US Congress last January, than the daughter of Palestinia­n immigrants caught flak for her off-color cry to impeach Donald Trump. She has been in America’s blazing political glare ever since. Whether it’s her relentless needling of the president, being told by Trump to “go back” to the “corrupt” country she came from despite being born in Michigan, or being barred from visiting Israel Thursday by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Tlaib is a political lightning rod.

She became part of an internatio­nal controvers­y when she and fellow first-term US lawmaker Ilhan Omar - together the first Muslim women to serve in Congress - were denied entry to Israel and the Palestinia­n territorie­s on a congressio­nal trip. On Friday Tlaib ramped up the heat, rejecting the Jewish state’s compromise offer to allow her into the West Bank on a “humanitari­an” visit to see her grandmothe­r.

Accepting that offer under Israel’s “oppressive conditions stands against everything I believe in — fighting against racism, oppression & injustice,” she said. Tlaib and Omar have clashed with congressio­nal colleagues, especially regarding their support of a boycott of Israel over its treatment of Palestinia­ns,

and comments seen by many as anti-Semitic. Trump himself has sought to exploit the controvers­y, saying the two “are the face of the Democrat Party, and they HATE Israel!”

Tlaib is 43, the eldest of 14 children born to Palestinia­n immigrants. A self-described “progressiv­e warrior,” she grew up in modest means in Detroit, eventually becoming a social justice attorney. A mother of two sons, she speaks with genuine affection for her relatives. But that belies a fiery voice which has often led her into controvers­y. In 2016 Tlaib disrupted a Trump campaign rally to protest what she said was his “hate-filled rhetoric.”

Also that year she raised eyebrows by supporting a one-state solution, a departure from her Middle East peace stance that envisioned Israel and a Palestinia­n state side by side. “It has to be one state. Separate but equal does not work,” she told In These Times magazine. The comments antagonize­d Jews who believe a one-state solution could dissolve the world’s only Jewish state. Tlaib’s election stood in contrast to the rise in anti-Muslim sentiment around the country.

But just hours after being sworn in as the first Palestinia­n-American woman in Congress, Tlaib drew criticism for using profanity to demand Trump’s ouster. “We’re gonna go in there and we’re gonna impeach the motherfuck­er,” Tlaib bellowed at a progressiv­e gathering, in video that went viral. She has continued to make waves. In May Tlaib said she finds “a kind of calming feeling” in knowing that Palestinia­ns were involved in creating “a safe haven for Jews” following the Holocaust.

Tlaib has emerged as a member of the selfstyled “squad” of four progressiv­e newcomers, ethnic minority women whom Trump has repeatedly demonized. But Tlaib insists she won’t be cowed, not by Trump or Israel. She wanted to go to the village of Beit Ur Al-Fauqa to “pick figs” with her grandmothe­r, but ultimately declined. “Silencing me with treatment to make me feel less-than is not what she wants for me,” Tlaib said. “It would kill a piece of me that always stands up against racism and injustice.” —AFP

 ?? —AFP ?? DETROIT: People hold signs in support of US Democratic Representa­tive for Michigan’s 13th congressio­nal district Rashida Tlaib during ‘Shabbat in the Park With Rashida’ event with pro BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) group in Pallister Park in Detroit, Michigan.
—AFP DETROIT: People hold signs in support of US Democratic Representa­tive for Michigan’s 13th congressio­nal district Rashida Tlaib during ‘Shabbat in the Park With Rashida’ event with pro BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) group in Pallister Park in Detroit, Michigan.

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