Loading ...Pathbreakers of Arab America—Rashida Tlaib
By: John Mason / Arab America Contributing Writer
This is the sixty-eighth of Arab America’s series on American pathbreakers of Arab descent. The series includes personalities from entertainment, business, sports, science, arts, academia, journalism, and politics, among other areas. Our sixty-eighth pathbreaker, Rashida Tlaib, an American lawyer and politician serving as a U.S. representative from Michigan since 2019, representing the state’s 12th congressional district since 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, she is the first Palestinian American woman to serve in Congress and is one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress. Rashida is a champion of underrepresented Americans and a staunch ally of Arab Americans.
Rashida Tlaib, representative for underprivileged Americans and champion of her fellow Palestinians at home and abroad
Rashida Harbi Tlaib was born to working-class Palestinian immigrants in Detroit on July 24, 1976, the firstborn and eldest of 14 children. Her father was born in Beit Hanina, a neighborhood in East Jerusalem, while her mother was born in Beit Ur El Foka, near the West Bank city of Ramallah. Her father first moved to Nicaragua, then to Detroit, where he was an assembly worker in a Ford Motor Company plant. Rashida played an important role as firstborn in helping raise her siblings, while both her parents worked. Tlaib attended elementary school at Harms, Bennett Elementary, and Phoenix Academy and graduated from Southwestern High School in Detroit in 1994. She received a Bachelor of Arts in political science from Wayne State University in 1998 and her Juris Doctor from Thomas M. Cooley Law School in 2004. Rashida was admitted to the bar in the state of Michigan in 2007.
Tlaib began her political career in 2004 when she interned with State Representative Steve Tobocman, who hired her to his staff when he became majority floor leader in 2007. He encouraged her to run for his seat the next year, which she did, winning the election. Rashida has served as a U.S. representative from Michigan since 2019, winning the 2018 Democratic nomination and the general election for the United States House of Representatives in Michigan’s 13th congressional district, followed by her win representing the state’s 12th congressional district in 2023.
She is a member of the Democratic Party, the first Palestinian American woman to serve in Congress, and one of the first two Muslim women to be elected, along with Ilhan Omar, to Congress. Tlaib and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Representative from New York, are the first female members of the Democratic Socialists of America to serve in Congress. Tlaib is a member of ‘The Squad,’ an informal group of U.S. representatives on the progressive wing of the Democratic Party.
As a U.S. representative, according to the Wikipedia Series on Arab Americans, “Tlaib has been a vocal critic of both the Trump and Biden administrations. She has argued in favor of abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Tlaib voted to impeach President Donald Trump in both 2019 and 2021. She is sharply critical of Israel, viewing it as an apartheid state. Tlaib has called for an end to U.S. aid to Israel; she supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement and a one-state solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. On November 7, 2023, Tlaib was censured by the House of Representatives in response to her public statements following the October 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel.” In that case, Rashida was simply objecting in the most strenuous of terms to the Israel Defense Force’ wreaking death and destruction on Palestinian citizens in Gaza, most of whom are women and children.
Because of Rashida’s strong stances as a Muslim, an Arab American, and especially as a Palestinian American, she has been taken to task by a predominantly pro-Israel, anti-Islam Congress. For example, she was banned from entering Israel, even going to her home village in the West Bank, being accused by Israel of denying its “right to exist in this world.” Another example is that on October 26, 2023, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene proposed to censure Tlaib for her criticism of Israel and for “leading an insurrection” after she participated in a protest at the Capitol. The resolution did not pass. Finally, Rashida defended herself against the censure motion, calling it “deeply Islamophobic” and defending her phrase “from the river to the sea” as “an aspirational call for freedom, human rights and peaceful coexistence, not death, destruction or hate.”
On a personal note, in 1998, at the age of 22, Rashida married Fayez Tlaib. They have two sons. The couple have since divorced. In 2018, a campaign spokesperson referred to Tlaib as a single mother. According to her website, in December 2020, Rashida’s family expanded when they adopted their dog, Tayta.
“Meet Rashida,” she’s all in for her constituents, helping them get through everyday challenges
Tlaib’s website is very explicit on who she’s working for: “Throughout her time in office, she’s focused on helping her constituents get through everyday challenges while holding corporate polluters and billionaires accountable for taking advantage of the communities she represents. A bold, transformative leader and public servant, Rashida is fighting for families of all backgrounds, especially those left out and marginalized.”
While much of the news about Rashida concerns how she is perceived in the House of Representatives for her pro-Palestinian views, her accomplishments on behalf of her constituents tend to get lost in the noise. Her hometown community of Detroit is her top interest, where “she was taught to speak truth to power, even if her voice shakes.” One of the differences she makes is through Neighborhood Service Centers in the district created by her and her team. These centers help people with college debt, veterans’ services, immigration issues, Social Security and disability benefits, utility and water payments, advocacy on tenant issues, legal services, assistance with navigating government services, and more. “Rashida understands that supporting constituents through everyday issues is as important as getting a bill passed.”
Rashida has brought $5.9 million back to her constituents through her work in Congress and resolved more than 10,730 constituent cases. She has also secured over $55 million in federal funding for 25 local community projects that directly benefit youth, seniors, and more communities needing this investment. “This includes $7 million to replace dangerous lead service lines and support the right to clean water, as well as funding to provide affordable housing, to address flooding, to develop wellness hubs and expand clinics in the effort toward health equity, to expand high-speed broadband, to clean up industrial pollution, and more.”
Tlaib secures fourth term after soundly beating her opponent and withholding her support from V.P. Harris
Tlaib defeated her Republican opponent in Michigan’s 12th congressional district election on November 5, securing a fourth term as the only Palestinian American woman in the U.S. Congress. According to ‘Middle East Eye,’ (MEE) “the Associated Press called the race with just 18 percent of the votes counted,” Rashida having secured 77 percent of the vote, defeating the Republican Party’s James Hooper who received just 19 percent of the vote. Her victory comes amid the backdrop of Israel’s war on Gaza, which has killed more than 43,000 Palestinians so far and has been diplomatically and militarily supported by the Biden-Harris administration for more than a year.
Tlaib is characterized by MEE as “a vocal critic of the war, calling for the US to withhold weapons from Israel. Her opposition to the war on Gaza and support for pro-Palestinian protests on university campuses have drawn harsh criticism from both Republicans and Democrats.” While she declined to endorse Vice President and Democratic candidate Kamala Harris for US president, she still urged Americans to go to the polls and vote. Rashida averred, “No government is beyond criticism. The idea that criticizing the government of Israel is antisemitic sets a very dangerous precedent and it’s been used to silence diverse voices speaking up for human rights across our nation.”
More recently, in a ‘Democracy Now’ broadcast on 11/15, Tlaib called Secretary of State Blinken to resign for violating U.S. aid and arms trade laws. Specifically, she called on Blinken to resign “after he refused to hold Israel accountable for failing to allow U.S. aid into Gaza. Humanitarian groups report aid deliveries have fallen to an all-time low since Blinken issued his ultimatum, with just 37 trucks entering Gaza per day in October and an average of 69 trucks per day in early November.”
Rashida quoted the law relevant to this case, namely, that “U.S. law is very clear. No nation blocking U.S. humanitarian assistance can receive U.S. weapons. The Biden administration cannot pick and choose when they comply with our own laws. Children are forced to eat pet food and bug-infested flour. Look at this, and do not turn your back on, again, being complicit in this war crime. But Blinken says there’s no need to change our own policy.”
That is pure Rashida, bold, blunt, and to the point, reflecting her heartfelt feelings about her people. Her constituents and many underprivileged people around the world love her and respect her for wearing her heart on her sleeve. There aren’t many like Tlaib serving her people so honestly and fervently.
Sources:
–“Rashida Tlaib,” Wikipedia Series on Arab Americans, 2024
–“Meet Rashida,” Rashida Tlaib Website, 2024
–“US elections 2024: After not endorsing Harris, Rashida Tlaib secures win in Michigan,” Middle East Eye, 11/6/2024
–“Rashida Tlaib Calls on Blinken to Resign for Violating U.S. Laws on Aid and Arms Trade,” Democracy Now, 11/15/2024
John Mason, Ph.D., focuses on Arab culture, society, and history and is the author of LEFT-HANDED IN AN ISLAMIC WORLD: An Anthropologist’s Journey into the Middle East, New Academia Publishing, 2017. He has taught at the University of Libya, Benghazi, Rennselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York, and the American University in Cairo; John served with the United Nations in Tripoli, Libya, and consulted extensively on socioeconomic and political development for USAID and the World Bank in 65 countries.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of Arab America. The reproduction of this article is permissible with proper credit to Arab America and the author.
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