Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) was seen photographed recently with a man who has repeatedly praised Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
Abbas Hamideh, who is the co-founder and vice chair of an organization called Al-Awda, tweeted out the following:
I was honored to be at Congresswoman @RashidaTlaib swearing in ceremony in #Detroit and private dinner afterward with the entire family, friends and activists across the country. #Palestine #TweetYourThobe #RashidaTlaib pic.twitter.com/caJPN12ODX
— Abbas Hamideh (@Resistance48) January 12, 2019
According to a StandWithUs report, Hamideh has issued myriad social media posts praising Nasrallah, including a tweet from September 2016 where he wrote, “Long live Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah! Long live Syria and Palestine!” above a photo of Nasrallah holding up a firearm. Hamideh also wrote in a February 2016 Facebook post that Nasrallah is “the most honorable man on the face of the Earth.”
Max Samarov, executive director of research and campus strategy for StandWithUs, told the Journal in a phone interview that Nasrallah once said, paraphrasing, that “it’s good for Jews to gather in Israel so then they [Hezbollah] won’t have to hunt them around the world to kill them, they can kill them all in one place” and has been “cooperating with the dictator in Syria to slaughter his own people.”
Additionally, according to the StandWithUs report, Hamideh liked a June 2014 comment on Facebook that read, “Grrr… Shoot a Zio!!!” “Zio” has been used as an anti-Semitic slur after former Ku Klux Klan (KKK) leader David Duke’s frequent use of the term.
“This is somebody that no political leader should be associating with,” Samarov said.
Al-Awda is an organization that advocates for the “right of return” for Palestinians and their generations of descendants to return to Israel, which would “eliminate Israel as a Jewish democratic state,” Samarov argued.
According to the StandWithUs report, when former Israeli President Shimon Peres died, Al-Awda wrote on Facebook, “We will make sure to honor him with a public toilet in a Free Palestine! To hell with the war criminal!” Al-Awda also re-tweeted a tweet from Hamideh that had photos of Israeli flags burning with the caption “Real Jews.”
“They could accurately be described as a hate group,” Samarov said.
Samarov called on Tlaib to “unequivocally condemn” Hamideh.
“People like that shouldn’t be given any kind of platform or connection with important political leaders like members of Congress, Republican or Democrat,” Samarov said.
The Jewish Democratic Council of America (JDCA) told Jewish News Syndicate (JNS) that they stand “unequivocally against Abbas Hamideh’s radical record and his extremist anti-Israel views.”
“JDCA has repeatedly stated our strong policy disagreements with Rep. Rashida Tlaib and we urge her to make clear where she stands with regard to Abbas Hamideh,” the organization said.
Tlaib’s office did not respond to the Journal’s request for comment as of publication time.
