Sen. John Kennedy (R-La) made national news last Tuesday after telling Arab American witness Maya Berry, Executive Director of the Arab American Institute, to "hide your head in a bag." I wish he would change his name.

Telling an Arab-American witness to "hide your head in a bag" following her testimony during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on hate crimes, and accusing her of supporting terrorism, is racist, offensive, and distasteful. Congress needs to educate its members about Islamophobia and racism.

During the Senate hearing on anti-Arab hate crimes and antisemitism, Ms. Berry was invited as an expert witness to testify. Rather than allowing her to address the issue at hand, GOP members of the Senate Judiciary Committee ganged up against Maya Berry, which reminds me of the movie *The Lion King*, when a clan of hungry hyenas encircled cub Simba, wanting to make a cub sandwich out of him.

On Sep 20, Jennifer Bendery wrote in the Huffington Post:

"Man, The Senate Judiciary Committee Is Broken: Maya Berry came to testify as an expert on hate crimes. She ended up the target of blatant anti-Arab racism by Republican senators."

Here is the line of questioning by GOP members of the committee as reported by Huffington Post:

Instead of asking Ms. Berry about her new data on hate crimes against Arab Americans and Jewish Americans since Oct. 7, Senator Kennedy asked her one of the most bigoted and offensive questions I've ever heard:

"You support Hamas, do you not? Do you support Hezbollah? Do you support Iran? What does UNRWA mean?"

After she unambiguously said, “No,” she did not support any terrorist entities, he told her, "You can put a bag over your head."

Sen. Lindsey Graham said, “If you think it’s complicated to figure out that Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran want to kill all the Jews, I should not listen to anything else you have to say!” He shouted over her as she repeatedly tried to speak.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) showed posters with photos from pro-Palestinian campus protests and asked Berry if each image counted as a hate crime. When Berry tried to steer the conversation away from free speech on campuses and back to actual hate crimes, Hawley began shouting over her, “What you’re trying to do here today is wrong,” according to the Huffington Post.

Sen. Lindsey Graham once said, “The Palestinians in Gaza are the most radicalized population on the planet who are taught to hate Jews from birth. It will take years to fix this problem.”

Graham also compared anti-genocide protestors to Nazis. Meanwhile, Sen. Hawley was the first senator to announce his intention to refuse to certify the results of Biden's victory following the 2020 presidential election and suggested once on Twitter that any new U.S. aid to Ukraine should instead be given to Israel.

These characters are in total denial that Israel is subjecting Palestinians to one of the worst brutal occupations and repugnant oppression in modern history. I wonder how much they get paid by the pro-Israeli lobby AIPAC. You can bet their questions were drafted by their AIPAC handlers.
Remember when Netanyahu spoke to OUR Congress and received 58 standing ovations?

That shows the power of the Zionist lobby and the numerous billionaires who buy off 99.9% of U.S. politicians. Politicians, Democrats or Republicans, do NOT serve the public—they serve the donors who give them millions of dollars for their election campaigns.

The only reason to come up with a ridiculous statement like that is to solicit campaign funding from pro-Israel groups. And I thought prostitution was illegal!

During college campus protests all over the country and with anti-Arab and anti-Muslim hysteria on the rise, a landlord in Illinois fatally stabbed a six-year-old Palestinian-American boy 26 times, killing him, and then stabbed the boy's mother 12 times in a hate crime last October. Luckily, the mother survived.

One month later, three college students in Vermont wearing keffiyehs were shot, leaving one paralyzed from the chest down. The students were of Palestinian descent, two of whom are U.S. citizens, and the other a legal resident.

On July 26, 2023, Sen. John Kennedy (R-La) applauded the Senate’s passage of S. Con. Res. 14, a resolution to reaffirm U.S. support for Israel:

"The State of Israel is not a racist or apartheid state. Congress rejects all forms of antisemitism and xenophobia. The U.S. will always be a staunch partner and supporter of Israel."

While Maya Berry clearly stated that she does not support Hamas, Hezbollah, or Iran, let’s assume for the sake of argument that she did. What gives Sen. Kennedy the right to publicly support the apartheid state of Israel and put the interests of Israel first, yet Ms. Berry cannot defend the rights of Palestinians and Lebanese people or call for the U.S. not to fund UNRWA, which provides education, medical help, and aid to 6 million Palestinians inside and outside occupied Palestine?

I should add here that, contrary to Sen. Kennedy's claim, the nine Palestinians employed by UNRWA that Israel accused of taking part in the October 7 attacks were fired without investigation by UNRWA. They were simply accused by the same entity that falsely claimed Hamas had raped hundreds of women and beheaded 40 babies. Eleven months later, Israel has failed to produce any evidence.

Last November, the U.S. Congress censured Rep. Rashida Tlaib, the sole Palestinian-American in Congress, for criticizing Israeli genocide in Gaza and defending the Palestinian right to freedom. Rep. Tlaib never advocated for the destruction of Israel. It was a flat-out lie. Nevertheless, this patriotic and courageous lawmaker was unfairly censured by the U.S. Congress.

Meanwhile, Congress should take immediate action to censure Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana for his racist and vile attacks against a distinguished and patriotic Arab American leader who once proudly served as a congressional aide and loves America.

It’s worth noting here that Sen. John Kennedy, Sen. Graham, and Sen. Hawley are in total denial that Israel is subjecting Palestinians to one of the worst brutal occupations and repugnant oppression in modern history. I wonder how much they get paid by AIPAC. I bet all their questions during the hearing were drafted by their AIPAC handlers.

It is preposterous for Sen. Kennedy and the rest of the GOP committee members to subject Maya Berry to the type of dehumanizing attacks seen at the Senate hate crimes hearing. By implying that any Arab or Muslim-American who supports and stands up for Lebanese or Palestinian human rights is guilty of supporting "terrorism" and antisemitism, they deny these groups their rights.

Meanwhile, Jewish-Americans are free to enlist in the IOF, engage in war crimes against Palestinians and Lebanese civilians, and then be praised as heroes. The same goes for American mercenaries who go to Ukraine to fight against the Russian occupation army. That begs the question: Is there such a thing as "good" occupation and "bad" occupation? Inquiring minds want to know!

Sen. Kennedy's unprofessional conduct during the hearing stirred national outrage and embarrassment for his home state. The *Louisiana Illuminator* condemned Sen. Kennedy in a column published on Sep. 19, stating:

"Louisiana deserves better than a mean-spirited caricature in the U.S. Senate. At the very least, Kennedy needs to be sent a message that the level of rudeness he displayed on Tuesday toward Berry doesn’t sit well with the home crowd. More importantly, Louisiana needs to have a zero-tolerance policy for the people we elect to represent us: no racism, no bigotry, no misogyny, no dogmatism, and no more refusal to budge from intransigent views. Until we do, brace yourselves for more embarrassment."

Mahmoud El-Yousseph is a Palestinian freelance writer for Islamicity.org and ColumbusFreePress.com. He can be reached at [email protected].