TEL AVIV — Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) has come under fire for posing for a photo with an anti-Israel extremist and staunch supporter of the Hezbollah terror group at a swearing-in ceremony over the weekend.
Abbas Hamideh, who has in the past equated Israel with Nazism, terrorism and the Islamic State, tweeted a picture of himself and Palestinian-American Tlaib alongside a painting of Tlaib wearing the Palestinian kaffiyeh on Capitol Hill.
“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,” said Hamideh.
Hamideh is the co-founder and executive director of Al Awda, a “right of return” advocacy group. One of the core issues of the Arab-Israeli conflict is the Palestinian demand for the “right of return” that would see Palestinian “refugees” and their descendants — who now number around 5 million — flood Israel in any final status agreement. Israel has categorically rejected this demand, deeming it a bid to destroy the Jewish state by demographics.
Hamideh in the past described convicted terrorist Samir Kuntar, who was behind an 1979 attack that saw four Israelis killed, as a “legendary Hezbollah martyr.”
He wished Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah a “Happy Birthday to the most honorable Arab-Muslim leader of our lifetime.”
He routinely posts incendiary rhetoric against Israel on his social media pages.
He once tweeted, “Criminal Zionism will eventually die just like Nazism. No racist and supremacist political ideology should maintain itself. Israel does not have a right to exist. The terrorist entity is illegal and has no basis to exist other than a delusional ISIS like ideology.”
Tlaib has expressed her support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. She has also called for the U.S. to cut aid to Israel and supported a one-state solution to the conflict, which, like the “right of return,” would spell the end of the Jewish state by demographic means.