From right: Ilhan Omar, Cornel West, and Rashida Tlaib (agencies)
A group of American politicians, jurists, public figures, and representatives - of Arab and American origins - declared their explicit rejection of the Israeli massacres against the Palestinians, especially in light of the aggression that Israel began against the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, after Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.
Cornel West
An American philosopher announced his candidacy to compete in the 2024 US presidential elections, for the left-wing People's Party, and demanded an end to the genocide committed by Israel against the Palestinians.
He is an African American, whose full name is Cornell Ronald West. He was born on June 2, 1953, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and grew up in Sacramento, California. He graduated from John F. Kennedy High School.
In 1970, he joined Harvard University, from which he graduated in 1973 summa cum laude, majoring in Near Eastern Languages and Civilization. He then obtained a Master of Arts from Princeton University in 1975, and a doctorate from the same university in Philosophy in 1980.
Throughout his professional and academic career, he received more than 20 awards and honorary degrees, including:
The Lannan Freedom of the Press Award in 2005. The Writers Guild of America Award in 1993. The Four Freedoms Award, an annual award given to men and women whose achievements have demonstrated commitment to the principles declared by former US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in his historic address to Congress on January 6, 1941. As necessities for democracy: (freedom of opinion and expression, freedom of worship, freedom from want, freedom from fear).
In 2008 he received special recognition from the World Cultural Council.
He holds the position of honorary president of the Democratic Socialists of America, and is running to compete in the 2024 US presidential elections.
West wrote 20 books and contributed to editing 13, among his most famous books:
Race matters.
Radical King.
The rich and the rest of us.
The covenant with black America.
Keeping the Faith: Philosophy and Race in America.
Illuminations of the crisis in American religion and culture.
From Yemen: Alexandria Ocasio, Ayanna Pressley, and Sarah Leah Whitson (agencies)
His positions in support of Palestine
West had a clear position since the beginning of the Israeli aggression on Gaza, and he strongly criticized it. He also criticized the US administration’s position in support of Israel, and called for an immediate ceasefire and an end to the genocide committed by the occupation against the Palestinians.
He said in a voice message on November 14, 2023, “We stand in solidarity with anyone who is subjected to occupation, that is, that is oppressed, that is, that is oppressed. For this reason... we are focusing on Gaza at this moment,” considering that Israel committed genocide in the Strip.
He also submitted his resignation from Harvard University - where he was a professor of general philosophy at the Divinity School - because of the university’s acquiescence to Israeli lobbies and its bias against the Palestinians.
In a scathing resignation letter he published on June 30, 2021, West said that Harvard University was experiencing a state of “decay” and “spiritual rot,” and stressed that he was certain that his criticism of Israel was one of the main reasons for his being denied tenure at the university.
Rashida Tlaib
Rashida Tlaib is one of the most famous Americans of Palestinian origins. She has great political activity within the Democratic Party. She gained her fame from her clear positions in support of Palestine and rejecting unconditional American support for Israel.
Rashida Tlaib was born on July 24, 1976 in Detroit to a Palestinian immigrant family. She attended Harms Elementary School, Bennett Elementary School, and Phoenix Academy.
She graduated from Southwestern High School in Detroit in 1994, completed her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Wayne State University in 1998, received her Juris Doctor from Cooley Law School at Western Michigan University in 2004, and became an attorney.
Rashida belongs to the left wing of the Democratic Party, and is a member of the Democratic Socialists group. She was a member of the Michigan House of Representatives from 2009 to 2014. At that time, she was the first Muslim American to work in the Michigan Legislative Council, and the second Muslim woman in history to be elected to a council of this type in The United States. She was also elected to the US Congress in 2019.
Rashida Tlaib was subjected to smear campaigns because of her position in support of Palestine (Anatolia Agency)
Its positions in support of Palestine
She was subjected to a campaign in the House of Representatives in November 2023 because of her position in support of Palestine and her clear rejection of the Israeli aggression against Gaza and the crimes of the occupation against the Palestinians, as the House of Representatives decided, by a majority of 234 votes to 188 votes, to censure her because of her condemnation of the Israeli war on Gaza.
She was subjected to a major rebuke campaign - supported by the Anti-Defamation League and Jewish organizations - because of her defense of Palestine and her chant, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” in reference to Palestine’s historical borders.
This prompted Israel's supporters and pro-Israel representatives in the House of Representatives to explicitly accuse Tlaib of "calling for the destruction of the State of Israel."
Ilhan Omar
An American politician from Minnesota, of Somali origin, who became famous locally when she was elected as a member of the Minnesota State House of Representatives for the Democratic Party.
Her full name is Ilhan Abdullah Omar. She was born on October 4, 1981, in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, and grew up in the city of Baidoa.
Ilhan fled Somalia after civil war broke out in the country in 1991;
She spent 4 years in a refugee camp in Kenya, then her family immigrated to the United States in 1995. They initially settled in Arlington County, Virginia, but soon moved in the same year to Minneapolis.
She received her high school diploma from Edison School, and graduated from the University of North Dakota College of Arts in 2011. She specializes in political science and international studies. She works as a politician, activist, and civil servant.
She was elected as a member of the US House of Representatives from the state of Minnesota in 2019, and a member of the Minnesota House of Representatives from 2017 to 2019, for the Democratic Party, making her the first Somali-American to be elected to this position. She is also a member of the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
Ihan Omar (right) with Rashida Tlaib at a conference in Minnesota in 2019 (Reuters)
Its positions in support of Palestine
Ilhan did not hesitate to criticize the policies of the Israeli occupation, and stressed that the occupying state is an “apartheid regime,” and described Israel’s bombing of Palestinian civilians as “the act of evil people.”
Her declared anti-Israel positions and opinions caused her to be subjected to accusation and smear campaigns by Jewish lobbies, and she was accused of anti-Semitism, but she responded clearly that “criticizing the Israeli government does not in any way mean hatred of the Jewish people.”
She was subjected to a campaign in the House of Representatives in February 2023, when Republicans voted by a large majority of 218 votes to 211 against, in favor of removing Omar from her position on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, due to her statements against Israel.
Nasser Baydoun
An American businessman of Lebanese origins, whose family immigrated to the United States in the 1960s, announced his intention to run in the 2024 Senate elections for the state of Michigan. He has great opinions and criticism of politics and the American electoral system.
He was born in the city of Bint Jbeil, and immigrated to Michigan as a child with his family in 1969 when he was 5 years old. His star later rose until he became one of the most famous Arab businessmen in Michigan.
In 1987 he moved to California, then returned to Michigan in 1999. In 2000, he became executive director of the Arab-American Chamber of Commerce, and in 2001 he was appointed responsible for Arab-American liaison to the Arab League.
He obtained bachelor's and master's degrees in business administration from the University of San Diego, California. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the executive director of the Arab-American Chamber of Commerce and president of the Arab-American Civil Rights League.
His positions in support of Palestine
In November 2023, Beydoun said that the former head of the Michigan Democratic Party, Lon Johnson, offered him $20 million from a pro-Israel lobby group to run against Rashida Tlaib to compete for membership in the state House of Representatives, and he expressed his denunciation of that behavior, reiterating his public support. for the Palestinian position.
Baydoun stressed that no one has the power to pay all this money except the well-known American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which said it would spend $20 million to dismiss Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, Cori Bush, Jamal Bowman, and all the progressives in the US House of Representatives.
Beydoun criticized America's position on the Israeli aggression against Gaza, and accused Washington of colluding with Israel in the genocide it is committing in the Strip, through the financial and military aid it provides to Tel Aviv.
He considered that American foreign policy involves a form of hypocrisy, given Washington's great support for Ukraine and its position on the Israeli war on Gaza.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
A democratic socialist activist, she is a member of the Conference of Democratic Socialists in America and enjoys the support of progressive political organizations. She has clear positions in criticizing American policy and defending Palestinian rights.
She was born on October 13, 1989, and is an American of Puerto Rican descent. She graduated from Yorktown High School in 2007 and attended Boston University. In 2011, she graduated with honors from the College of Arts, majoring in international relations and economics.
In 2016, she worked on the presidential campaign of US Senator Bernie Sanders.
She began her political career by obtaining a seat in Congress in 2017, representing the Bronx district in New York in 2019, and became the first American of Latin origin to be elected to the Council.
Its positions in support of Palestine
In May 2018, Ocasio-Cortez criticized the Israeli military's use of lethal force against Palestinians participating in protests on the Gaza border with the security fence, describing it as a "massacre."
In a July 2018 interview, she said she “supports the two-state solution,” and described the Israeli presence in the West Bank as an occupation of Palestine, and her use of the term “occupation” sparked violent reactions from a number of pro-Israel groups and commentators.
In July 2019, Ocasio-Cortez voted against a House resolution introduced by Representative Brad Schneider condemning the global Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement targeting Israel, which passed by a vote of 398 to 17.
In May 2021, Ocasio-Cortez issued a statement condemning Israel's expulsion of Palestinian families from their homes in East Jerusalem, and criticized US President Joe Biden for saying that Israel "has the right to defend itself."
In terms of her comment on the developments of current events regarding the repercussions of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, Cortez condemned the Al-Aqsa Flood operation launched by the Palestinian resistance on the settlements surrounding the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, and on the 12th of the same month, she criticized Israel’s plans to cut off electricity, water, and fuel. Regarding Gaza, she described this as “collective punishment and a violation of international law.”
She also rejected her country's position to stop funding the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), saying that it was an "unacceptable" position and called for the immediate return of aid.
It also called for preventing the sale of weapons to Israel, and not providing it with precision-guided weapons “due to the bombing of Palestinian civilians and media centers.”
Ayanna Pressley
Ayanna Pressley is an African-American politician. She was elected to the US House of Representatives in 2019 for the Democratic Party in Massachusetts. She is also a member of the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
She was born on February 3, 1974 in Cincinnati, one of the largest cities in Ohio, but grew up in Chicago. She received her initial education at the Francis W. Parker School. During the period between 1992 and 1994, she attended the College of General Studies at Boston University.
In 2009, she served as political director for US Senator John Kerry, and was responsible for managing his relationships with elected officials at the city, state, and federal levels and with many community leaders.
She was first elected to the Boston City Council in November 2009, and after being sworn in on January 4, 2010, she became the first African American to hold this position on the Boston City Council.
Its positions in support of Palestine
The American administration called for the necessity of intervening and preventing the Israeli government from violating international law and threatening common human values.
After the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip in 2023/2024, Pressley called on Biden to press for an immediate and permanent ceasefire.
She stressed in clear statements that there is no justification for the policy of collective punishment practiced by Israel against Gaza and its children.
She also wrote in a tweet on her account on the X platform, “We must not remain silent due to what is happening in Palestine.”
Sarah Leah Whitson
An American human rights activist and former head of the Middle East and North Africa Department of Human Rights Watch, she played a major role in leading dozens of investigative missions to investigate several issues related to human rights in a number of countries around the world.
She was born to an American father and an Armenian mother from the Armenian Quarter in the occupied Old City of Jerusalem. She studied at the Armenian School in Los Angeles. She obtained a Bachelor of Arts from the University of California/Berkeley in 1988, and graduated from Harvard Law School in 1991. She also obtained a Doctorate in Law. From the university itself.
Its positions in support of Palestine
Sarah Leah Whitson warned of the consequences of Congress' approval of Biden's request to provide funding worth $14.3 billion to Israel by the end of 2023, and considered that this payment contains a reference to efforts to deport Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.
She stressed the necessity of not providing any financial or military support to Israel as long as it continues to violate recognized human rights laws.
She said that the United States should not fund the war crimes of forced displacement of Palestinians, warning of the plan to displace Palestinians to Egypt.
She stressed that the massive siege imposed by Israel on civilians in Gaza, cutting off water, electricity, and medicines, and preventing the entry of food, are all a clear example of a full-fledged war crime, not to mention the indiscriminate bombing of civilian areas.
Source: Al Jazeera + websites