Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) is reportedly an active member of an unlisted Facebook group that glamorizes Hamas and celebrated the October 7 attacks against Israel, according to a new report. The Michigan Democrat, who was censured by the House last week for her recent rhetoric, has been a member of the private Palestinian American Congress group for more than six years, during which time group members have uploaded posts praising Hamas, defending Palestine, and calling for the eradication of Israel.
According to Fox News, which managed to obtain access to the invite-only discussion board of 15,000 Facebook users, the group was created by Maher Abdel-qader, an activist who has previous ties to Tlaib and other progressive Democrats. Abdel-qader has come under fire in the past for denying the Holocaust and saying that Israelis are “not real Jews.” In 2021, Tlaib was forced to distance herself from him after he shared a public video denouncing “Satanic Jews”—comments for which he later apologized.
Less than a week after the Hamas invasion of Israel on October 7, members of the group began uploading comments and pictures celebrating the actions of the militant Palestinian group. “We don’t want to throw you in the sea … we want you to ride it back from where you came,” wrote one user alongside a picture of a Hamas fighter and an alleged hostage.
Another wrote about the “achievements” of the “resistance in Northern occupied Palestine,” which include counts of slain Israeli soldiers and destroyed military vehicles.
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“Since yesterday I have been attached to the TV watching the news,” one group member posted on Oct. 10. “You [the American media], and the people directing you, are the problem. You created it almost 100 years ago, made it official 75 years ago and you have been feeding its flam [sic] ever since.”
Fox News also highlighted a 2018 post from Tlaib herself raising funds for her first run for Congress.
Her membership in the group was previously exposed by The Daily Caller in 2019, but she was believed to have left the group after that report.
As the only Palestinian in Congress, Tlaib has become an outspoken critic of the Israeli war effort, demanding a ceasefire and accusing the US government of supporting genocide against the residents of Gaza.
Earlier this month, the Michigan congresswoman posted a video showing protesters chanting “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”—a rallying cry that tacitly calls for Israel to be erased from the map. This video led to Tlaib being censured by a bipartisan motion in the House of Representatives.
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