Tlaib slams Tapper for comparing Palestinian leaders and Hamas to white nationalists

“What’s interesting about this theory is that, you know, you hear conservatives all the time, rightly so in my opinion, talk about the tone set by people in the Arab world,” he began.

Tapper continued, “Palestinian leaders talking about — and the way they talk about Israelis, justifying in the same way you’re doing, no direct link necessarily between what the leader says and violence against some poor Israeli girl in a pizzeria, but the idea that you’re validating this hatred and yet people don’t — you can’t compare the ideology of Hamas with anything else. At the same time, either tone matters or it doesn’t.”

Tapper’s comments were criticized by a pro-Palestinian activists including Tlaib, who is of Palestinian descent.

“Comparing Palestinian human rights advocates to terrorist white nationalists is fundamentally a lie. Palestinians want equality, human dignity & to stop the imprisonment of children,” the congresswoman tweeted. “White supremacy is calling for the *domination* of one race w/ the use of violence.”

James J. Zogby tweeted, “Your bias is showing. Won’t disagree about Hamas, but for god’s sake have you listened to Israeli leaders talk about Palestinians. They’ve called them: vermin, cockroaches, cancer, & a leading rabbi justified killing them saying ‘the souls of gentiles aren’t human!'”

The CNN anchor responded, “Absolutely and the language you cite is horrific and unacceptable. The question I was trying to pose is how those in Congress who condemn Pal. leaders for ‘incitement’ can credibly then argue that the words of US leaders don’t matter.”