Rashida Tlaib member of secret Facebook group where Hamas terrorists glorified

By Joe Schoffstall, Peter Hasson

Rep. Rashida Tlaib is part of a secret social media group in which its members have glamorized Hamas in its war battle with Israel after the terror group attacked and killed hundreds of innocent Israeli civilians last month, Fox News Digital has found.

The Michigan Democrat is a member of the Palestinian American Congress group on Facebook. The group is hidden from non-members and does not appear on the platform’s search engine, though Fox News Digital was able to gain access to it.

The group’s founder, Maher Abdel-qader, who has extensive ties to Tlaib and has also been linked to other liberal politicians, has come under fire in the past for his antisemitic social media posts, including questioning if the Holocaust ever occurred.

The Palestinian American Congress group, of which Tlaib is a member, has featured pro-Hamas posts in the wake of the deadly Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

On Oct. 12, one group member posted: “We don’t want to throw you in the sea…we want you to ride it back from where you came.” The message was accompanied by a picture of an elderly Israeli woman and a Hamas fighter holding her captive.

On Oct. 19, another group member wrote about the “achievements” of the “resistance in Northern occupied Palestine,” including dozens of dead Israeli soldiers. The post included a picture of a Hamas fighter.

“Since yesterday I have been attached to the TV watching the news,” one group member posted on Oct. 10, addressing the “American Media” and saying, “You, and the people directing you, are the problem, you created it almost 100 years ago, made it official 75 years ago and you have been feeding its flam ever since.”

“You consider Hamas a terrorist organization and I am not going to argue with you at the same time you have been broadcasting that they have been killing women and children, guess that is what terrorists do at the same time no mention to the killing of Palestinian women, children and entire families killed on a daily basses (sic) by the [peace-loving] state of Israel using American gifts of weapons and jet fighters.”

“Yesterday I didn’t see Hamas I saw the grand kids (sic) of the refugees that ethnically cleansed from their homeland attacking the grand kids (sic) of the colonists whom sent them to diaspora,” they later wrote.

Several members have also posted pro-Hamas messages and pictures this year before the attacks.

Tlaib became a member of the group six years ago and posted in it during her 2018 congressional campaign. The following year, she came under fire after a report in the Daily Caller News Foundation revealed her membership and the slew of antisemitic posts in the group.

Tlaib is the only Palestinian American in Congress and has faced scrutiny over her comments after Hamas’ bloody invasion and the ensuing war. In a largely symbolic gesture, the House of Representatives voted to censure her in a 234-188 vote last week as a formal public rebuke of her most recent anti-Israel comments made in the wake of the Jewish nation’s battle against the terror group. Her congressional office did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Tlaib has a long history with Abdel-qader, the founder of the Palestinian American Congress group, who has repeatedly promoted antisemitic conspiracy theories over the years. He previously shared a video that called Jews “satanic” and questioned whether 6 million of them had died in the Holocaust. He later walked back those comments.

Abdel-qader has participated in several fundraising events with Tlaib over the years and has also appeared in several pictures with her posted to social media accounts.

The Palestinian activist has not only been a key fundraiser for Tlaib, including personally donating at least $6,500 to her campaign since 2018, but he was also the chairman of her finance committee during her 2018 congressional campaign.

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