16 | JULY 16 • 2020 

but they support a free Palestine. They sup-
port a Palestine that has equality and can 
live in peace. 

You supported a two-state solution before 
being elected. And then you said you sup-
ported one state —
I think you should pull the J Street ques-
tionnaire. [Editor’
s note: J Street initially 
endorsed Tlaib’
s 2018 Congressional run, 
before later withdrawing it. The advo-
cacy group issued a statement reading it 
“will not endorse candidates who do not 
endorse a two-state solution.
”]
In the J Street questionnaire, I specifically 
say the two-state is almost impossible now 
around the racist policies of Netanyahu 
— that [a] two-state would be impossible 
without actually hurting Israelis. If you 
think about some of the Israeli families 
[who] have been in those communities for 
almost five decades, is the solution to push 
them out and recreate that kind of hurt? I 
just don’
t know how you uproot people yet 
again. That’
s what happened to Palestinians. 
I also know from my lens growing up in 
the United States that “separate but equal” 

doesn’
t work. 
I was there in 1995 when Prime Minister 
[Yitzhak] Rabin was still alive, and people 
were on the same buses together, people 
were going to the beach together. There 
wasn’
t this militarization of neighborhoods 
and villages. People spoke to each other. My 
uncle was going to his Israeli boss’
s daugh-
ter’
s wedding. There was just this beautiful 
kind of humanity and that brought people 
together, where now the segregation — and 
that’
s what it is — is just making people less 
safe.

There are a lot of Jews, both locally and 
nationally, who would get on board with 
your platform of economic justice were it 
not for your positions on BDS and Israel. 
What would you say to them?
It’
s just this one issue that we might disagree 
on. I had a few residents who were like, “I 
don’
t know, Rashida.
” And I said, “You don’
t 
have to be there, but know it’
s coming from 
a place that I really believe.
” I really, truly 
believe that both communities can be free 
if we push back against Netanyahu’
s racism 
and right-wing approach. 
I ask people, “If you don’
t support BDS, 

great, that’
s on you, but don’
t judge or 
dismiss those who do because that’
s the 
way they’
re speaking up, that’
s their voice. 
And it’
s you wanting to put tape over their 
mouth and saying, ‘
You shouldn’
t support 
this.
’
” 
You can disagree. You can say, “I don’
t 
believe in that approach.
” At the same 
time, you can [agree that] we need to hold 
Netanyahu accountable. [He’
s] a person 
who doesn’
t support many of the values, I 
think, of Israelis and Palestinians living in 
the United States right now.

You visited the Holocaust Memorial Center 
in Farmington Hills. What was that experi-
ence like for you?
It was extremely emotional. My son Adam 
went into one of the rooms and there were 
these clipped articles. He said, “Mom, look 
at the data. That one was three years before 
the United States intervened … People 
knew and they didn’
t do anything about it.
” 
It was a powerful moment.
That’
s why you can’
t stay silent. That’
s 
why I went to the border and saw what was 
happening to immigrant children, and it’
s 
those kinds of images and things happening 

Jews in the D

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