What Are the Reasons and Repercussions for the Winning of Palestinian-Origin Candidates in the US Midterms?

November 8, 2022, saw the first major national elections since the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, which includes all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and a third of the Senate.

Despite the fierce campaign led by the Zionist lobby, the Palestinian candidates for state parliaments in America, as well as the Palestinian candidate for Congress, won those elections over their Republican rivals.

The American Representative of Palestinian origin, Rashida Tlaib, managed to win in the midterm elections for the House of Representatives.

Tlaib, the Democratic candidate, won for the third time in a row from Michigan.

The preliminary results of the midterm elections in the United States also showed that two new Palestinians won membership in local parliaments, namely, Ruwa Romman and Abdelnasser Rashid.

Romman, a young woman of Palestinian origin, was able to win membership in the Georgia state parliament as a candidate for the Democratic Party.

In the state of Illinois, Rashid won membership in the Illinois state parliament as a candidate for the Democratic Party.

 

Rashida Tlaib

Rashida Tlaib, an American of Palestinian origin, won for the third time a Democratic Party seat in the Michigan House of Representatives.

In a tweet on Twitter, Tlaib thanked all the volunteers in her campaign and everyone who voted for her and contributed to her victory in the elections.

Tlaib had won the Democratic primaries last August, after a fierce campaign against Democratic candidate Janice Winfrey, who is backed by AIPAC, the largest and most powerful Jewish lobby organization in the United States.

On November 8, 2022, Tlaib won 73.7% of the vote in Michigan, ahead of Republican challenger Stephen Elliott, who won 23.4% of the vote, according to the Associated Press.

The Muslim Rep. is constantly exposed to hostile campaigns, most notably from AIPAC, which has intensified its efforts in recent months in an effort to defeat critics of "Israel" in Congress, led by Representative Rashida Tlaib.

On November 6, 2018, Tlaib made history by taking the oath of office as the first Palestinian-American Muslim woman to serve in Congress.

Rashida Tlaib, 42, is the eldest of 14 brothers and sisters, all born in Detroit to immigrant parents from the West Bank in Palestine.

Tlaib then became a lawyer, trained with a local politician, and worked with the Obama campaign, and was elected in 2008 to the Michigan House of Representatives, where she was a member until 2014, having lost her opponent to the Michigan Senate.

In 2018, Rashida won the congressional seat held by John Conyers Jr., which has been a monopoly since 1965, sparking a wave of celebrations in the West Bank, especially as Tlaib defeated five other candidates in the Michigan District in the primaries.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib defends her record in Congress vigorously, and Tlaib promotes other achievements in addition to her solid stance in opposing Israeli policies, such as setting up neighborhood service centers to help address issues facing their current constituents.

Tlaib was outside her party and Congress in general on "Israel," and she supported the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement to punish "Israel" for its treatment of the Palestinians.

Tlaib campaigned to increase the allocations of US infrastructure reform legislation to focus on projects within her district, especially road and bridge construction and childcare programs.

In her previous election campaigns, she has called for reforms such as universal health care, minimum wages, environmental protection, and acceptable tuition fees for university education.

 

Ruwa Romman

Palestinian Ruwa Romman, born in 1994 in Jordan to Palestinian parents, was able to win membership in the Georgia state parliament as a candidate for the Democratic Party in the midterm elections on November 8, 2022.

In a tweet to her on Twitter, Romman thanked the Palestinian and Arab community in the United States for their support in winning the membership of Parliament.

Her family moved to the United States, specifically to Georgia, when she was seven years old.

Romman received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Politics from Oglethorpe University in 2015.

She received her MA in Public Policy from Georgetown University's McCourt School of Public Policy in 2019.

Romman entered the political field, describing herself as passionate about politics, civic engagement, interfaith dialogue, and community service.

Romman has volunteered in every election cycle since 2014. She has also served as a field organizer for the Georgia Muslim Voters Project, in addition to her work as Director of Communications in the CAIR-Georgia organization.

In 2020, Romman helped teach many Georgians how to get involved in the election process, where she served as a field manager for the Asian American Advocacy Fund.

Ruwa is currently working as a senior advisor for a professional services management firm that assists government agencies and other stakeholders by advising, implementing, and developing improved strategies to deal with key public policy issues at the local, state, and federal levels.

The 29-year-old had focused in her election campaign on the need for the government to work for the benefit of all.

She pledged to take action to fully fund education, close the economic opportunity gap, expand access to health care, and protect voting rights.

 

Abdelnasser Rashid

The Democrat of Palestinian origin, Abdelnasser Rashid, won membership in the Illinois state parliament in the midwestern United States during the local elections that took place on November 8, 2022, becoming the first Palestinian-American to be elected to the Illinois State Legislature.

Prior to that, Rashid won the Democratic primary elections to gain the party's support to run for the Illinois State House of Representatives elections for Cook County.

Rashid ousted his rival, the current deputy in the state House of Representatives for the county, Michael Sadowsky, who has been in office since 2008, and received 3,897 votes by 51.7%, compared to 3642 votes for his rival by 48.3%.

Rashid, 33, is married and has three children, and he is the son of a Palestinian family that moved to the United States 55 years ago.

His parents came from a rural Palestinian village where educational opportunities were scarce, especially for women, while the family was among the first in their village to send their daughters to university.

Rashid grew up helping his mother run a stall at a local flea market, while his father ran a small retail store in Chicago, before Rashid earned his degree from the prestigious Harvard University.

After graduation, Rashid returned to Illinois, then joined the Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, which campaigns for immigration reform in Illinois and across the country.

Rashid also managed the election campaign for Chicago Mayor Jesus Garcia Choi and served as Cook County's deputy clerk.

Recently, Abdelnasser led a successful effort to help seniors save time and money by passing legislation to automatically renew the seniors' exemption, rather than forcing them to apply for the exemption each year.

During the election campaign, the Democrat of Palestinian origin offered that he would prioritize the interests of working families, not the private interests of businesses.

On his official website, he indicated that he would fight to eradicate corruption, fund public education, and work to reform the crippled property tax system that punishes working families while giving big businesses big tax cuts.

 

Successive Successes

In the same context, the leader of the Palestinian American Council, Maher Abdelqader, considered that "the success of the Palestinian youth in the American midterm elections is a continuation of the tireless work carried out by dozens of community leaders in supporting the candidates, and to complement the successive successes achieved by the Palestinian candidates in the parliamentary elections, whether at the level of certain states or at the level of the United States."

"These victories are the results of the work of the Palestinian community, which began years ago to focus on preparing candidates who support the Palestinian cause by supervising their campaigns and supporting them financially, which culminated in the work and support of 12 candidates for the US Congress, all of whom managed to win these midterm elections," Mr. Abdelqader added.

He pointed out that "there were no supporters of the Palestinian cause in the US Congress 6 years ago, but now the number exceeds the 10 deputies, thanks to the continuous efforts and support campaigns carried out by the members of the Palestinian community in cooperation with the members of the Arab and Islamic communities."

In turn, Nisreen al-Khatib, a journalist at Al Jazeera's Sanad Agency for Monitoring and News Verification, emphasized that "Palestinians have not only shone bright through the media as strong and educated people represent their people and cause and country effectively, they have also proven that can carve a trace in international places, just like in the US midterm elections."

"The world is watching how Palestinians are growing as tough fighters against the Israeli Occupation inside Palestine, and, at the same time, how those outside Palestine are thriving to make their voice heard and to prove that they are persistent wherever they're planted. I think the Palestinians' nonstop success in a variety of fields is proof that Palestine will never stop existing," she added.

As for the reasons for the repeated success of Palestinian youth in the US elections, al-Khatib explained that "in spite of the law of the jungle, where the stronger normally has the lead, and which pushes the world leaders to offer a shameful support to the Israeli government, the human being's conscious is not blind."

"The world's people are aware of the inhuman and unjustified cruelty and oppression the Palestinians are exposed to by the Israeli Occupation, and they can identify the occupier and the occupied," she added.

She continued, "The international awareness of that fact is an important factor in raising the worldwide advocacy for a free Palestine. But they don't know what to do to stop the heinous Israeli atrocities. By voting for Palestinian candidates, they feel they're doing something for Palestine."

On the impact of the rise of representatives of Palestinian origins to the political scene in the United States, Nisreen al-Khatib indicated that "the Palestinians have always been fighting to prove their existence inside their land! Given the fact they're constantly oppressed, they are trying to change their reality in international sectors."

She concluded, "Having Palestinian members at the policy-making chambers of Israel's biggest supporter, this is remarkable, and moves the Palestinian advocacy movement to another level."