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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