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PALESTINIAN-AMERICAN CONGRESSWOMAN IS THE LONE PROTESTER AT
NETANYAHU’S SPEECH  
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Linda Pentz Gunter
July 26, 2024
Morning Star
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_ “Netanyahu is a war criminal committing genocide against the
Palestinian people,” Tlaib said in a statement. “It is utterly
disgraceful that leaders from both parties have invited him to address
Congress." _

COURAGE OF HER CONVICTIONS: Rashida Tlaib holds a sign ‘Guilty of
genocide’ as Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to a joint meeting of
Congress at the Capitol last Wednesday,

 

Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian-American member of the US
Congress, was the lone protester on Wednesday when Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fulfilled an invitation from leading
Republicans and Democrats to address members of both the House and
Senate inside the US Capitol.

Speaking for close to an hour, Netanyahu was received with thunderous
applause and frequent standing ovations by both Republicans and
Democrats, including two minutes of non-stop cheering before his
speech could even begin.

Tlaib, a keffiyeh draped across her shoulders, sat silently as others
around her stood, holding up a small sign with the words “War
Criminal” on one side and “Guilty of Genocide” on the other, at
each of Netanyahu’s steadily more egregious claims.

While some of her fellow progressive legislators, including
“Squad” — the unofficial name for a group of eight progressive
Democratic Representatives all are people of colour — members Ilhan
Omar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, chose to stay away, leaving scores
of empty seats, Tlaib sat grim-faced throughout Netanyahu’s speech,
often shaking her head in disbelief as one falsehood followed another.

Before the speech, considered the highest honour that can be afforded
a visiting foreign leader, Tlaib, from Michigan, had called for
Netanyahu’s arrest.

“Netanyahu is a war criminal committing genocide against the
Palestinian people,” she said in a statement. “It is utterly
disgraceful that leaders from both parties have invited him to address
Congress. He should be arrested and sent to the International Criminal
Court.”

Like former president, Donald Trump, on whom Netanyahu heaped praise
during his speech, the Israeli prime minister skilfully turned the
truth on its head, ascribing his own crimes to others. Israel’s
battle in Gaza, he claimed, is “a clash between barbarism and
civilisation. It’s a clash between those who glorify death and those
who sanctify life.”

In describing the horrors of the October 7 massacre of Israelis by
Hamas, Netanyahu made no mention of the disproportionately violent
retribution meted out by Israel on Palestinian civilians. Instead, the
abduction by Hamas of “two red-headed children,” made Hamas
“monsters,” according to Netanyahu, but the slaughter of tens of
thousands of Palestinian children simply hasn’t happened. It was, he
declared, “outrageous to paint Israel as genocidal.”

Furthermore, if Palestinians were starving, that had nothing to do
with the Israeli siege. Plenty of food was getting in, Netanyahu
claimed, and any starvation was “because Hamas is stealing” the
food.

As for the protesters outside, numbering in their thousands and
calling for a permanent ceasefire, for aid to be delivered to a
desperate Palestinian population, and for an end to the US arming of
Israel, they are being funded by Iran, Netanyahu alleged.

Those protesters included Brandon Mancilla, representing the United
Autoworkers Union (UAW), who reminded the audience that opposing the
genocide in Gaza is a labour issue because “our very own government
is coming after labour unions for standing with the people of
Palestine.”

The UAW, which includes not only auto workers but also university
workers and public defenders, is one of the few unions yet to endorse
Kamala Harris as the presidential candidate to replace President Joe
Biden.

“Our members reflect most of the people in the country and most of
the people in the world,” said Mark Diamondstein, head of the
American Postal Workers Union, whose convention just passed a
resolution calling for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and an end to the
US arming of Israel.

Two-thirds of US voters (and 77 per cent of Democratic voters) support
an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza. In Israel, two-thirds of
voters want Netanyahu gone, according to a recent poll.

But Netanyahu in his speech, brazenly reversed those statistics,
claiming that “the vast majority of Americans continue to support
Israel,” while “a minority have fallen for Hamas’s con job.”

Finally, ominously adapting the words of Winston Churchill’s
February 1941 appeal to president Franklin Roosevelt for US help in
World War II, Netanyahu urged the US Congressional audience: “Give
us the tools faster and we’ll finish the job faster.”

_Linda Pentz Gunter is a writer based in Takoma Park, Maryland._

* Rashida Tlaib
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* Benjamin Netanyahu
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* War on Gaza
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* Genocide
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* Israel
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