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.
