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AMY GOODMAN: We are also joined in Detroit by Congressmember Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian American member of Congress. She addressed members of the flotilla, the Handala, earlier this week.
What are you calling on the Trump administration to do to ensure the safety of the ship? You previously called for the safe passage of the ship before, that Israel raided, the Madleen, Congressmember.
REP. RASHIDA TLAIB: Yeah, I mean, we use the power of the letterhead, and getting a lot of my colleagues, so it’s not just me alone, but other fellow Americans that don’t share my faith or ethnicity or have a close connection to the movement for human rights for the Palestinians. But I can tell you, you know, many of my colleagues are expressing in words to me about the starvation, the forced starvation of the people in Gaza, the Palestinians there, but they’re lacking action. Their votes don’t meet up with the words of “it needs to stop.” They have the leverage. They can sign letters, send their own letters.
And so, for all those listening to, you know, Huwaida, who’s from Michigan, from my home state, you know, talking to Chris Smalls, Jacob and so many, hearing their stories come out of why they’re there, they are risking their lives and sacrificing so much to try to break the siege, to go there, while they continue, as all of us continue, to see the images of just children and so many others, even the parents, you know, just dwindling, their organs shutting down, mothers, just like me and Huwaida and so many others, expressing, like, “Is it because my child is Palestinian? Is it because they’re in Gaza?” And it is really incredibly difficult.
But the Trump administration knows more — a letter is coming, knowing that, again, all eyes on the flotilla. I’m asking everyone to keep your eyes on there. Pay attention, no matter what country, no matter what community you live in. You know, the majority of folks globally have been standing up and saying, “Enough is enough. End the genocide and the forced starvation.”
You know, I’ve been, you know, awakened and understanding. Sometimes I wish my colleagues would maybe pretend that they weren’t Palestinian; then they would actually care and do something to end this madness of, again, allowing people that are just hungry to go death traps, that we, the American people, are paying for to lure them in because they’re so hungry. And they know, from hearing from other stories, that they could lose their life trying to get food, and again, stories after stories, not only from the doctor we listened to and Huwaida’s previous experience of even trying to break the siege. This is not the first, nor will it be the last time that, again, the Israeli government violates international law. They consistently do it. They have for decades. And so, we’re going to continue, again, trying to elevate and make Congress move. And we can do that by having members, Americans from outside that institution, demand their member do what they’re asking.
AMY GOODMAN: So, I want to ask you about where you’re from, your family from the West Bank, and I want to ask you about the killing of another U.S. citizen by Israeli forces. Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank fatally beat 20-year-old Palestinian American from Tampa, Florida, earlier this month, Sayfollah Musallet, known as Saif by his family. He was visiting his village, al-Mazra’a ash-Sharqiya, reportedly the seventh American killed in the West Bank, Gaza, Lebanon since October 2023. A second Palestinian, Mohammad al-Shalabi, was shot dead during the settler attack. Musallet’s cousin Diana read a statement from the family.
DIANA MUSALLET: We are devastated that our beloved Sayfollah Musallet, nicknamed Saif, was brutally beaten to death in our family’s land by illegal Israeli settlers who were attempting to steal it. Israeli settlers surrounded Saif for over three hours as paramedics attempted to reach him, but the mob of settlers blocked the ambulance and paramedics from providing lifesaving aid. After the mob of Israeli settlers cleared hours later, Saif’s younger brother rushed to carry him to the ambulance. Saif was killed and died before reaching the hospital.
AMY GOODMAN: And just this week, the Israeli Knesset, the parliament, voted 71 to 13 for a nonbinding motion to annex the occupied West Bank. It calls the West Bank an “inseparable part of the land of Israel.” Can I get your response to what the U.S. government is doing about the killing of its citizen, Saif, and this latest news from the Knesset?
REP. RASHIDA TLAIB: The American government is doing absolutely nothing, as per usual, around an American citizen that has been killed. Again, military and others watch this happen, watch extremists. And, you know, again, these are Israelis. And people call them “settlers.” They’re extremist Israelis. Nobody knows what these — these are folks coming into — with Israeli citizenship, coming in to take land. But it’s — you know, I don’t like when people call it a “clash.” They came for the intention of forcibly, with force, with violence, killing people, to take, again, property or to harass. And sometimes it’s just to intentionally harass and target the Palestinian people, because the goal here is — and the Knesset told us — is to ethnically cleanse anyone who is a Palestinian. That is, again, different faiths. But if you’re Palestinian, if you’re — if you’re Christian, if you’re Muslim, you, again, are going to be pushed out of this — of the land, being pushed out again, all under this, you know, movement, again, to completely get rid of the Palestinian people from all corners of the country. And again, this is even Palestinian citizens of Israel being targeted. I don’t know if people realize, there’s integrated communities, where the Palestinian people there, again, that have Israeli citizenship, are also being targeted.
All this to say is I don’t care if it’s in Jerusalem, in the integrated neighborhood or community, or in the West Bank. You know, what happened to Saif, what happened to Mohammad, what happened again, continues to happen to American people, is the experience of the Palestinian people there that are not American. It happens all the time. It is consistent. And one of the things that people need to know is that these are — these are Israeli citizens, folks just walking around, with the enabling and the support of the Israeli military and the genocidal maniac, Netanyahu. They have set out the [inaudible], “Go for it. Go ahead and ethnically cleanse.” And then, the Knesset just showed them with the vote that’s exactly what they want to do.
And the American government, and my colleagues, Democrat and Republican, sit by idly and say, “That’s terrible,” or “I don’t like Netanyahu.” Great. Then stop sending him and the country our money. Use it as leverage to uphold human rights. Use it in a way, again, to uplift what we all believe in. No one should be forced to starve. No one should be pushed out of their land, again, illegally, to violate international laws.
All of those things to say is, you know, Amy, I watched in a committee people just distressed of an American being brutally killed in Syria, and wanting to insist on sanctions, again, that hurt the people on the ground. But the fact that they were willing to do it there, but not when it comes to the Israeli government, there’s always an exception when it comes to the Palestinian people. It is completely racialized. Again, I intentionally say in my speeches on the House floor, “If you need to close your eyes and pretend they’re not Palestinian, they’re not Brown, they’re not Muslim, they’re not [inaudible] — all of these things, I wonder if my colleagues would act differently.” I really do think they would.
And again, you know, many of my colleagues try to send letters, but even their letters are — there’s racist tropes in those letters. There’s words in those letters that even erase, again, the brutality of what happened to Saif and so many others. And, you know, I’ve been there seven years, and it’s getting worse, not better, even as we watch the genocide live on social media platforms, even as we hear from Americans in our own backyard talk about their loved one — loved ones being targeted and brutally murdered. And again, Saif and Mohammad has exposed to us what happens to the Palestinian people who are not Americans, every single day that they live there.
AMY GOODMAN: Finally, the Republicans in the Financial Services Committee voted to block an amendment from you, Congressmember Rashida Tlaib — this is on a different issue — which would have forced the first release of Jeffrey Epstein’s financial files, particularly details about his shady, suspicious financial transactions, the dead child sex trafficker. Recent reports reveal billions of dollars in payments to women, including those in Belarus and Russia. You also signed on to a House bipartisan measure introduced by Thomas Massie and Ro Khanna demanding the release of the files. In this last 30 seconds we have, why is this so critical to you? And this on the second-day meeting of Trump’s former personal lawyer, now the deputy attorney general, and Ghislaine Maxwell.
REP. RASHIDA TLAIB: I think it’s important to know there are three banks, very large banks, Morgan — JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America and another bank, Mellon, in New York. All three of them did not, within the regulations or requirements, within 60 days of those transactions by Epstein, report those transactions. They’re, again, required within 60 days. Amy, they waited until he was arrested in 2019. We’re not talking about 100 or 200 — over 4,000 transactions, amounting to $1.5 billion. It is important and critical to understand who was involved directly in the human trafficking of young women —
AMY GOODMAN: Three seconds.
REP. RASHIDA TLAIB: — who, again, enabled it.
AMY GOODMAN: Democratic Congressmember Rashida Tlaib, I want to thank you for being with us, of Michigan, the only Palestinian American member of Congress. I’m Amy Goodman. Thanks for joining us.
