GOP senator tells Arab American witness at hate crimes hearing to ‘hide your head in a bag’

Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., repeatedly suggested a leading Arab American activist is a Hamas supporter when she testified Tuesday at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on hate crimes, and he told her she should hide her “head in a bag.” The activist, Maya Berry, said repeatedly that she did not support Hamas and was “disappointed” by the minuteslong exchange toward the end of a hearing called “A Threat to Justice Everywhere: Stemming the Tide of Hate Crimes in America.” Kennedy asked, referring to the militant group behind the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks on Israel. “Senator, oddly enough, I’m going to say thank you for that question, because it demonstrates the purpose of our hearing today in a very effective way,” Berry responded. “Hamas is a foreign terrorist organization that I do not support, but you asking the executive director of the Arab American Institute that question very much puts the focus on the issue of hate in our country,” Berry responded. Kennedy continued, referring to the Iran-backed militant group. “I find this line of questioning extraordinarily disappointing,” she responded, before Kennedy said, “Is that a no?” Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., in Dirksen building on June 4, 2024. Tom Williams / CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images file “I don’t support violence, whether it’s Hezbollah or Hamas or any other entity that invokes it, so no, sir,” she said. He then asked her whether she supported Iran and “their hatred of Jews,” and she again said no. He then noted her previous criticism of Congress for cutting funding to a United Nations agency known as UNWRA that is doing relief work for Palestinian refugees amid allegations a dozen of its 30,000 workers were involved in the Oct. 7 attack. I do not support Hamas,” she said. You can’t bring yourself to say don’t support UNWRA, you don’t support Hamas, you don’t support Hezbollah and you don’t support Iran. In her opening statement, Berry said hate crimes in the country typically follow anti-immigrant rhetoric and noted that there was a surge of hate crimes against Arab, Muslim and Jewish Americans since the Oct. 7 attack. Asked by Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin, D-Ill., whether she had anything she wanted to say after the Kennedy exchange, Berry said, “It’s regrettable that I, as I sit here, have experienced the very issue that we’re attempting to deal with today. “The introduction of foreign policy is not how we keep Arab Americans or Jewish Americans or Muslim Americans or Black people or Asian Americans, anybody safe. This has been regrettably a real disappointment but very much an indication of the danger to our democratic institutions that we’re in now,” Berry said. “Political leaders must not fan the flames of hatred and division,” Durbin said on X. “Jewish, Arab, Muslim, and Palestinian Americans *all* deserve to be safe.” – This Summarize was created by Neural News AI (V1). Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/gop-senator-repeatedly-suggests-arab-american-witness-supports-hamas-h-rcna171565