Global Courant
On May 10, a historic event took place in the halls of power in Washington. Members of the US Congress, their staff and more than 100 activists, advocates and survivors huddled in a Senate Judiciary Committee room to mark the 75th anniversary of what we Palestinians call the “Nakba” (catastrophe) – the violent expulsion by Zionist militias of about three quarters of the Palestinian population from his homeland.
The event, “Nakba 75 and the Palestinian People,” was the first of its kind to be held in Congress. It was a success not only because it gave a voice to the Palestinians at the heart of US imperial power, but also because it resisted attempts to be shut down.
The day before the event was due to take place, Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy tried to block it. He revoked our reservation for the Congressional Auditorium at the US Capitol Visitor Center and falsely accused us, the organizers, of “trading anti-Semitic tropes about Israel.”
But McCarthy failed to stop us. Senator Bernie Sanders stepped in and welcomed the event into the chamber of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which falls under its jurisdiction.
As a Palestinian American and one of the main organizers, this experience was very personal and very important. It reminded me of all the challenges I—and many Palestinian Americans like me—have had to endure in order to make our voices heard. It serves as proof that change is underway in the US.
Silencing Palestine in Congress
Historically, the American public has not paid much attention to Palestine. It has generally embraced the Zionist narrative that our homeland was an “empty land” when the Jewish people, Europe’s canonical victims, came to arrange it, fleeing violence. A majority of Americans have always been sympathetic to the Israelis over the Palestinians, who have often been seen as “violent Easterners.”
This public support was reflected in Congress and in the White House, with the US becoming Israel’s biggest supporter and sponsor. To date, Washington has provided Tel Aviv with approximately $158 billion in aid, making it the largest recipient of U.S. aid.
State legislators and the US Congress have regularly passed pro-Israel resolutions and legislation. Dozens of states have passed legal measures to counter the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, which seeks to pressure Israel to comply with international law.
Meanwhile, successive US administrations have put pressure on Arab states to normalize relations with Israel, most recently through the so-called Abraham Accords.
Israel has a powerful lobby in the US. According to a recent report, the 10 largest Zionist groups in the US together have more than $500 million in assets; in 2022 alone, they spent $70 million promoting unconditional support for Israel in Congress.
There are, of course, members of Congress who have spoken out in favor of Palestinian rights. For example, in 2017 Minnesota Congresswoman Betty McCollum introduced the groundbreaking legislation known as the “Promoting Human Rights for Palestinian Children Living under Israeli Military Occupation Act.”
Senator Sanders of Vermont has also been a notable advocate for Palestinian rights. He has called for more accountability for Israel’s treatment of Palestinians during his presidential campaigns and has openly criticized the expansion of Israeli settlements.
But McCollum and Sanders were outnumbered. This imbalance in representation has made it extremely difficult for Palestinian rights advocates to work within the halls of power in Congress and Washington as a whole, to raise awareness, engage in meaningful discussion, and promote legislation in support of the Palestinian cause.
Change is coming
I encountered this challenging environment when I first became involved in pro-Palestinian activism in my freshman year of high school. Despite all the talk about the importance of human rights and freedom in academic and political circles, the silence surrounding Palestinian rights made me feel marginalized.
As a Palestinian American, I longed for the recognition of my heritage, the recognition of the struggles my community faces, and the pursuit of justice for Palestine.
I started working for the state legislature in Colorado in my senior year of college. There, too, the Palestinian struggle was completely ignored. It was really daunting but expected.
Palestine was a term of abuse in American politics until Representative Tlaib was elected in 2018. As the first Palestinian-American woman to serve in Congress, she unlocked doors that had long been locked to pro-Palestinian advocates.
Things began to change for me personally when Representative Iman Jodeh, the first Palestinian-American Muslim woman elected to the Colorado legislature, took office three years later in January 2021. Seeing her commitment to amplifying the voices of all marginalized communities made me feel change was possible.
Several months later, tensions escalated in Sheikh Jarrah, a Palestinian neighborhood in occupied East Jerusalem subject to Israel’s brutal ethnic cleansing of Palestinians through forced eviction. For the first time, two Palestinians, Muna and Mohammed el-Kurd, broke into the US mainstream and challenged the Israeli narrative. The US media gave them some space to speak and eventually covered Israel’s massacres of Palestinians in Gaza.
The global outcry over Israel’s crimes in the spring and summer of 2021 caused a serious shift in the zeitgeist of the American public.
The change in attitude is especially evident among supporters of the Democratic Party. In a 2023 Gallup poll, 49 percent of Democrats said they sympathized more with the Palestinians than with the Israelis, compared to 38 percent a year earlier.
The shift has encouraged Palestinians to continue their efforts to lobby for their cause in the halls of power. We are already seeing the results of it in our own advocacy with Americans for Justice in Palestine Action (AJP Action).
In 2022, AJP Action registered a record 803 American voters with our program to advocate for Palestinian rights in Congress; they met with more than 130 convention bureaux.
Last year, HR2590, a bill that would limit Israel’s foreign aid, which AJP Action supports and lobbies for, reached 32 co-sponsors, compared to 13 when it was first introduced in 2021 — an unthinkable number just a few years ago .
These successes make me even more confident in my work with members of Congress as I try to shift entrenched US politics over Israel and Palestine and promote legislation in support of Palestinian rights.
Advocating for Palestine is still an uphill battle in Congress, but it is no longer an impossible one.
And our event on May 10 proved that. For the first time, in the halls of Congress, Nakba survivors could tell and be heard their traumatic memories of the violence and pain they suffered; for the first time, the emblematic poem “On This Land” by Mahmoud Darwish, about the love of the Palestinians for their country, was recited.
The Memorial of the Nakba on Capitol Hill was a milestone in our ongoing fight for recognition and justice. Despite efforts to silence us, we raised our voices and reached places far beyond our opponents’ expectations.
The Nakba did not end in 1948. It continues to this day and Palestinians continue to be dispossessed, ethnically cleansed and killed. But we have demonstrated that there is a force ready to respond to Israel’s atrocities, even in the halls of Capitol Hill.
This is the power of grassroots organization. This is the importance of representation. This is the resilience of the Palestinian American community.
This event would not have been possible without the tireless work of the Palestinian rights advocates who came before me. We will carry its spirit with us as we continue to fight for a future where Palestinians are no longer marginalized or forgotten, but recognized, respected and free. The road ahead may be challenging, but with determination, solidarity and the support of our allies, we believe in a brighter future for Palestine.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial view of Al Jazeera.
