Republicans continue to show that Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel really meant it when she called the Hamas attack on Israel “a great opportunity.” McDaniel’s fellow party members have attacked President Joe Biden for supposedly somehow inviting the attack. Right-wing media figures and politicians have gone after Biden for supposedly not working hard enough—hours before the United States released a joint statement on the crisis with the U.K., France, Italy, and Germany following a call between the nations’ leaders. They’re real believers in “crisitunity.” And when it comes to Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib, the first woman of Palestinian descent to serve in Congress, they see their opportunity.
Right-wing media outlets, including the New York Post and the Washington Examiner, are attacking Tlaib for having a Palestinian flag outside her office, while Republican Rep. Max Miller is pushing for Congress to ban non-U.S. flags.
Tlaib didn’t just put the flag up in response to events in Israel and Gaza—it’s been there for months. Furthermore, it’s not a Hamas flag, no matter how much right-wing media wants people to believe that “Hamas militant” and “Palestinian civilian” are universally overlapping categories. In January, Tlaib tweeted a picture of herself with the flag outside her office, writing, “Palestinians may be banned from flying their flag under an apartheid government, but we can still proudly do it at my office. I’m proud to be a Palestinian American and I want the Palestinian people to know that not all Americans support apartheid. No one can erase our existence.”
She already told the world what that flag means to her, and it isn’t about violence against Israelis.
“I grieve the Palestinian and Israeli lives lost yesterday, today, and every day,” Tlaib said in a statement following the initial Hamas attacks on Israel. “I am determined as ever to fight for a just future where everyone can live in peace, without fear and with true freedom, equal rights, and human dignity. The path to that future must include lifting the blockade, ending the occupation, and dismantling the apartheid system that creates the suffocating, dehumanizing conditions that can lead to resistance.”
She continued: “The failure to recognize the violent reality of living under siege, occupation, and apartheid makes no one safer. No person, no child anywhere should have to suffer or live in fear of violence. We cannot ignore the humanity in each other. As long as our country provides billions in unconditional funding to support the apartheid government, this heartbreaking cycle of violence will continue.”
More than 1,000 people were killed in the Hamas attacks on Israel over the weekend, with thousands more injured. In response, Israel declared a “complete siege” on Gaza, with “no electricity, no food, no water, no fuel.” Nearly half of Gaza’s 2 million inhabitants are under 18. The Israeli attacks accompanying the siege have killed at least 830 people and injured thousands. This is all part of long-running violence: ABC News reports, “According to the United Nations, roughly 6,400 Palestinians and 300 Israelis had been killed in the ongoing conflict since 2008, not counting the recent fatalities.”
When Tlaib said, “I grieve the Palestinian and Israeli lives lost yesterday, today, and every day,” she knew she had a lot to grieve. Her critics are angry that Tlaib didn’t mention Hamas specifically, but her response was in no way exultant over the attack or dismissive of Israelis.
It’s possible to be aghast at the brutality of the Hamas attacks on Israel and acknowledge the routine oppression and frequent violence Palestinians experience. That is, unless you’re a Republican seeking only to score partisan points on your political opponents.
