Michigan's Democratic Senate candidate Elissa Slotkin sent her spokesman on an anti-Israel tour of the West Bank led by a member of a terrorist group, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), that played a role in the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel.
Slotkin’s communications director, Austin Cook, attended the eight-day congressional staff delegation trip to the West Bank in August 2022.
The trip—sponsored by a group called the Rebuilding Alliance and co-led by the Holy Land Trust, which was described in the agenda as the "partner in the planning of this delegation"—also included meetings with the lawyers for a Palestinian terrorist imprisoned for a stabbing attack, anti-Israel NGOs, and groups leading a global boycott campaign against Israel. The trip did not include any meetings with pro-Israel officials.
The group's tour guide was Elias Deis, the executive director of the Holy Land Trust, a copy of the trip agenda filed with the House Committee on Ethics showed. Deis is also a city councilman in the West Bank who ran on the DFLP's party ticket, according to Palestinian media reports and his social media posts. Deis was listed as a member of a DFLP delegation that visited Ma'an News Agency in February 2022, six months before the congressional trip, according to a report by NGO Monitor, a pro-Israel watchdog group.
The DFLP, a Marxist-Leninist bloc founded in 1968, is sanctioned by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control as a "specially designated global terrorist" group. It is also a designated terrorist group in Israel and has helped carry out numerous terrorist attacks, including the Oct. 7 massacre.
The co-organizer of the congressional delegation, the Holy Land Trust, was founded by Palestinian Christian Sami Awad and says it is "fully committed to nonviolence as a means to resisting and ending occupation." The group has led leadership development programs for Hamas, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and other terrorist groups. Awad has said that while he supports "nonviolence," it is "not a substitute for the armed struggle."
Slotkin, a U.S. House member since 2019, personally signed off on the junket and a copy of the meeting agenda one month prior to the trip, according to a gift travel disclosure form filed with the House Committee on Ethics.
The news is likely to raise questions about Slotkin’s stance on Israel. The Democratic Senate candidate has sought to placate progressive voters and the state’s large Arab population by coming out early in favor of an Israeli ceasefire while still claiming to be a strong proponent of Israel and national security. Slotkin is facing off against Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers, a former congressman, in the highly competitive race.
Slotkin, who has faced pressure from pro-Hamas activists, has started using an algorithm to target her Facebook campaign ads at users with an expressed interest in the "State of Palestine," "Al Jazeera," and "Islamic Studies," while blocking users interested in "Jewish studies" from seeing the ads, the Washington Free Beacon reported last month.
In his disclosure form, Cook wrote that he was attending the trip because "meeting with leaders and stakeholders on the ground will be greatly beneficial to my work as her communications director and our office’s involvement in issues involving the Middle East."
Rebuilding Alliance, the group leading the trip, said it invited Cook because Slotkin "is on the Armed Services and Homeland Security Committees and is a leading voice on Capitol Hill on issues related to Israel and Palestine."
"This trip is relevant to Austin’s work as the communications Director because he is responsible for communicating his boss’s positions and messaging around Israel/Palestine."
The Rebuilding Alliance spent a total of $2,126 for Cook’s travel expenses, including $576 on "guide and speaker fees," according to the records.
NGO Monitor told the Free Beacon that it was concerned that congressional offices participated in the trip.
"A Congressional staff ‘study tour’ led by an NGO official linked to a designated Palestinian terror organization, and the entirely one-sided propaganda agenda raises a number of red flags," said Gerald Steinberg, the president of NGO Monitor.
"If the participants failed due diligence in examining the program or were aware of the terror connections and chose to ignore them—in either case, the implications are very severe."
The congressional delegation also met with the legal team for Ahmad Manasra, who was sentenced to nine years in prison for stabbing two Israelis in 2015—a crime that was captured on videotape. His supporters argue that he shouldn’t have received prison time because he was a teenager at the time he carried out the attack.
In addition, the tour included a meeting with Hanna Hanania, the mayor of Bethlehem, who has held events comparing the plight of the Palestinians to the persecution of Jesus and accused Israel of "ethnic cleansing" and "genocide" for its military response to the Oct. 7 attacks.
The delegation also met with officials from anti-Israel NGOs, including B’Tselem, a group that is highly critical of Israel’s human rights record; Military Court Watch, a group that works to get Palestinian youths who commit terrorist attacks released from prison; and Right to Enter, a group that fights against Israel’s security wall and border control policies.
Other congressional offices that participated in the trip were those of Rep. Troy Nehls (R., Texas), Rep. David Trone (D., Md.), Rep. Dwight Evans (D., Pa.), Rep. Suzan DelBene (D., Wash.), former Rep. Steven Palazzo (R., Miss.), and Rep. Betty McCollum (D., Minn.), according to the disclosure report. Rebuilding Alliance and the Holy Land Trust run the trips regularly.
Slotkin, Rebuilding Alliance, and the Holy Land Trust did not respond to requests for comment.