Democratic Michigan Rep. Rashida Talib said on MSNBC Monday night that Palestinians are experiencing “their January 6.”
MSNBC host Joy Reid asked Talib if the White House has reached out to her to talk about the conflict between the Palestinians and Israel. Talib has family living near the conflict in the Middle East.
“They are engaging me now finally after four months of me sending letters with colleagues, talking about home demolitions, talking about the attack on Palestinians living in Israel,” Talib said. “I mean their January 6th is happening right now daily in their lives and their own neighborhoods being attacked by mobs solely because they’re Palestinian.” (RELATED: White House Says Its Message For Democrats Sparring With Biden On Israel Is To ‘Step Back From Politics For A Moment’)
Talib claimed that Palestinians are only “targeted because of their ethnicity” and that her colleagues in Congress are too afraid to voice sympathy for Palestinians because they are “intimidated and bullied.”
“And you know, Joy, it is really hard because any of my colleagues that even have some sort of empathy towards Palestinians, they do it quietly with whispering because they continue to be intimidated and bullied by those that want to continue the status quo of apartheid in Israel,” she said. “They want to continue to have that power and hold, and they literally brush over Palestinians as somehow inherently violent, that they don’t deserve human rights.”
“And that’s what’s missing in the statements coming from President Biden,” Talib continued. “You don’t hear the words ‘Palestinians deserve human rights,’ that Palestinians deserve to exist, that Palestinians deserve to live freely, that children need to be safe and secure.”
Talib said that people only talk about human rights when they are talking about Israelis.
“You only hear it when they talk about Israeli citizens that are of a certain faith,” she added. “That’s what’s telling about what’s happening.”
President Joe Biden has said that Israel has the right to defend itself during the escalating conflict and has called for a ceasefire. Some Democrats, including Talib and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, criticized Biden for not backing Palestine.