A congressional hate-crime hearing brought the bigotry charge it was supposed to address after a Republican senator told the think tank’s female Muslim leader to “hide her head in a bag” and accused her of supporting Hamas and Hezbollah.
John Kennedy, a GOP senator from Louisiana, denounced Democrats and Muslim, Jewish and civil liberties groups to Maya Berry, director of the Arab American Institute, at a hearing held by the Senate Judiciary Committee. .
The proceedings continued when Ted Cruz, the Republican senator from Texas, was interrupted by a spectator protesting the number of Palestinians killed in Israel’s attack on Gaza. “You talk about fucking Jews and Israelis. Talk about 40,000. Talk about all these people. Why is it about anti-Semitism?” the protester shouted before being ejected from the chamber.
Cruz responded: “We now have a demonstration of anti-Semitism. We have a demonstration of hatred.”
Republicans criticized the theme of Tuesday’s hearing — set by the committee’s Democratic chairman, Dick Durbin — for conflating anti-Semitism with bigotry against Muslims, Arabs and other groups.
“The goal was to hear about why it’s so hard to go to school if you’re Jewish,” said Lindsey Graham, a Republican member of the committee and a South Carolina senator. “If you’re Jewish, you’re going to be knocked down. You’re going to be spat on. It’s just completely out of control. This is not the way we hear, so we’re working with what we have.”
The House Republican-led subcommittee has already held a series of highly regarded hearings focusing on the rise of anti-Semitism on college campuses since Hamas’ deadly attack on Israel last October, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 250 taken hostage. triggered the devastating ongoing Israeli military retaliation.
The House hearings led to the resignation of two university leaders after they answered questions about their institutions’ policies on calls for genocide against the Jews that were deemed insufficiently judgmental.
Graham tried to get into similar territory when he asked Berry if he believed Hamas, the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah or Iran aimed to destroy the only Jewish state. Berry responded that “these are complex questions”.
This eventually led to Berry having a hostile exchange with Kennedy, who asked him, “You support Hamas, don’t you?”
“Hamas is a foreign terrorist organization that I do not support,” Berry responded. “But when you ask this question of the head of the Arab American Institute, let’s focus on the issue of hate in our country.”
When Kennedy asked whether he supported Hezbollah or Iran, Berry replied, “Once again, I find this line of questioning extremely disappointing.”
Concluding the questioning by expressing his “disappointment” at Berry’s reluctance to express direct opposition to the three named entities, Kennedy declared, “You should hide your head in a bag.”
Called on by Durbin to respond to the outburst, Berry said, “It’s unfortunate that sitting here I’ve experienced the very problem we’re trying to address today. This has been a real disappointment, unfortunately, but very much indicative of the danger to our democratic institutions that we’re in now. And I’m deeply sorry thence.”
The Judiciary Committee — with Durbin’s approval — later approved Berry’s response, sending it to X, along with the following comments: “Senate Republican told Arab-American civil rights leader that ‘you should hide your head in a bag.'” We don’t corroborate this horrendous clip. But we do corroborate the witness’s forceful response in calling it out .”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) accused Kennedy and other Republicans of harboring Berry’s hostility.
“Maya Berry went before the committee to discuss hate crimes. Both Ms. Berry and the issue should have been treated with the respect and seriousness they deserve,” said Robert McCaw, Cair’s director of government affairs. Instead, Sen Kennedy and others chose to exemplify the bigotry that Arabs, Palestinians and Muslims have encountered in recent months and years.
Anthony Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, condemned the “discriminatory and vitriolic attack” against Kennedy.
“To use hearings about the shocking increase in anti-Muslim, anti-Arab and anti-Semitic hate crimes to launch personal and discriminatory attacks on an expert witness they have called to testify is both outrageous and inappropriate,” he said.
Sheila Katz, director of the National Council of Jewish Women, called Berry’s treatment “heartbreaking.”
“[T]he only Muslim witness faced biased questions about his support for Hamas and Hezbollah, despite his clear condemnations,” he wrote to X. “This hearing should fight hatred, not perpetuate it. The Senate must do better.”
