Freshman Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.), who has faced allegations of being anti-Semitic, met with anti-Israel activist Joe Catron during American Muslims for Palestine Advocacy Day last week.
Tlaib met with Catron and other members of AMP’s New Jersey chapter before taking a picture with them outside her office. AMP hosts the advocacy and training event annually, inviting all adults who "seek justice in Palestine," the Daily Caller reported.
In addition to seeking justice in Palestine, other criteria includes supporting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, or the BDS movement, which wages economic boycotts on the Jewish state. The movement also seeks to punish Israel by depriving it for what they believe is the mistreatment of Palestinians who are living around the Gaza Strip and West Bank.
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) says the BDS movement is "the most prominent effort to undermine Israel’s existence" and has been critical of AMP for promoting anti-Semitism. AMP touted the ADL’s anti-Israel description of their organization.
"A tip of my hat to Rashida Tlaib, who really goes above and beyond the call of duty in welcoming every supporter of Palestine to her office, listening to what we have to say, answering our questions, and posing for endless pictures," Catron wrote on Facebook following the meeting.
Catron is the U.S. coordinator of Samidoun, the Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, according to the Daily Caller.
Samidoun is an affiliate arm of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a Palestinian Marxist–Leninist and revolutionary socialist organization. The United States designated PFLP a terrorist organization in 1997, and Australia, Japan, Canada and the European Union shortly followed suit.
Catron’s cover photo on both of his personal Twitter and Facebook accounts is a montage of a PFLP fighter donned in the organization’s official logo, as well as rockets and soldiers pointed towards a target over the state of Israel. It also displays the Arabic phrase "If you do [more attacks on Gaza] we will do [as well], hell is waiting for you." The phrase is attributed to Mohammad Deif, the supreme military commander of Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing.
In addition to supporting PFLP and Hezbollah, Catron has also be an advocate for the Sunni-Islamist fundamentalist and terrorist organization Hamas. In 2014, Catron was a participant in a press conference alongside Tawfiq Abu Naim, the head of Hamas-run security forces in Gaza. The press conference was to support Palestinian prisoners, according to The Gaza Scoop.
This isn't the first time Tlaib hosted an anti-Israel activist at one of her events. Back in January, Abbas Hamideh, a "Palestinian right of return" activist with a history of calling Israel a "terrorist entity," attended a swearing-in ceremony and private dinner with Tlaib.
"I was honored to be at Congresswoman @RashidaTlaib swearing in ceremony in #Detroit and private dinner afterward with the entire family, friends and activists across the country. #Palestine #TweetYourThobe #RashidaTlaib," Hamideh tweeted.
I was honored to be at Congresswoman @RashidaTlaib swearing in ceremony in #Detroit and private dinner afterward with the entire family, friends and activists across the country. #Palestine #TweetYourThobe #RashidaTlaib pic.twitter.com/caJPN12ODX
— Abbas Hamideh (@Resistance48) January 12, 2019
Tlaib, the first Palestinian woman elected to Congress, expressed her support of the Palestinian state back in early January. She spoke out against Senate Bill S.1, sponsored by Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.). She castigated the "Combatting BDS Act," a measure contained in the "Strengthening America's Security in the Middle East Act of 2019" to combat the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement. Tlaid said the act is "literally an attack on our Constitution."