Yesterday on Capitol Hill, Maya Berry, the Executive Director of the Arab American Institute, was verbally berated by Republican Senator John Kennedy — who yelled, “You support Hamas, do you not?” and “You should hide your head in a bag.”
Rather than engage with the substance of the hearing—hate crimes and how to prevent them—Sen. Kennedy launched insults and false accusations, playing on bigoted tropes equating Arabs with terrorism.
Republicans said over and over in the hearing that they’re concerned about the rise in antisemitism and then proceeded to use antisemitism as a smokescreen for their anti-Arab bigotry.
We’d rather speak for ourselves: As American Jews, we come together to condemn the behavior of Sen. Kennedy and Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
It is beyond unacceptable that they used anti-Arab and anti-Muslim bigotry during a hearing on hate crimes, pretending throughout the hearing to speak on behalf of American Jewish safety.
Yesterday’s hearing was titled “A Threat to Justice Everywhere: Stemming the Tide of Hate Crimes in America.” The tides are man-made. And they are indeed everywhere. Including the U.S. Senate.
To many of us, Maya Berry is a longtime friend, veteran colleague, and close partner in the fight against hate. For more than a decade in our work together, Maya and her colleagues at the Arab American Institute have showed up to support us when Jews were under attack, and it is critical that we show up in solidarity now, and anytime Arab Americans are defamed.
In her testimony, Maya talked about the importance of fighting hate crimes in solidarity and not in isolation, noting that the safety of us all is linked together and how hate crimes affect us all. We agree, and it’s why we’re rising up as Jews and allies in solidarity at this moment.