Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) claimed on a podcast published on Friday that the Palestinians enabled a “safe haven” for Jews after the Holocaust, thereby reiterating her support for a one-state solution.
“There’s always kind of a calming feeling I tell folks when I think of the Holocaust and the tragedy of the Holocaust, and the fact that it was my ancestors—Palestinians—who lost their land and some lost their lives, their livelihood, their human dignity, their existence in many ways, have been wiped out, and some people’s passports,” Tlaib said on Yahoo News’ Skullduggery podcast. “And just all of it was in the name of trying to create a safe haven for Jews, post-the Holocaust, post-the tragedy and the horrific persecution of Jews across the world at that time. And I love the fact that it was my ancestors that provided that, right, in many ways. But they did it in a way that took their human dignity away, and it was forced on them.”
“When I think about one state, I think about the fact that why couldn’t we do it in a better way? I don’t want people to do it in the name of Judaism, just like I don’t want people to use Islam in that way,” she continued. “It has to be done in the way of values around equality and around the fact that you shouldn’t oppress others. So that you can feel free and safe. Why can’t we all be free and safe together? ... It is impossible for me to see a two-state solution without more people being hurt?”
Tlaib went on to blame Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for eliminating the prospects of a two-state solution between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
“If Netanyahu got up tomorrow morning and decides, ‘You know what, I’m going take down the walls. I’m not going to expand settlements. Enough is enough. I really want to push toward a two-state solution,’ he has every power to do that,” she said. “And then people like myself and others would truly believe in that.”
“But uprooting people all over again. To say that’s going to happen because you understand, when you look at the landscape and just map it out, it is almost absolutely impossible with how he has proceeded to divide,” continued Tlaib. “How he’s proceeded to dissect and segregate communities, that it is impossible for me to see a two-state solution without more people being hurt.”
