EXCLUSIVE: 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.
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Rashida Tlaib is a member of the private Palestinian American Congress Facebook group. (Fox News Digital screenshot of the secret Palestinian American Congress Facebook page)
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.
A post on the Palestinian American Congress page (Fox News Digital screenshot of the secret Palestinian American Congress Facebook page)
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.
A post on the Palestinian American Congress page (Fox News Digital screenshot of the secret Palestinian American Congress Facebook page)
“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.
A post on the Palestinian American Congress page (Fox News Digital screenshot of the secret Palestinian American Congress Facebook page)
Several members have also posted pro-Hamas messages and pictures this year before the attacks.
A post on the Palestinian American Congress page (Fox News Digital screenshot of the secret Palestinian American Congress Facebook page)
A post on the Palestinian American Congress page (Fox News Digital screenshot of the secret Palestinian American Congress Facebook page)
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.
Rashida Tlaib posted in the Palestinian American Congress group in 2018. (Fox News Digital screenshot of the secret Palestinian American Congress Facebook page)
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.
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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.
Tlaib introduced him by the title at a campaign event and presented him with a medal in April 2018 as a sign of gratitude for his help with her inaugural campaign.
On Monday, Abdel-qader posted a flier on his Facebook page, advertising a Chicago fundraiser for Tlaib and Pennsylvania Democrat Rep. Summer Lee, two congresswomen who he says “whole heartedly (sic) support” their community and the “just cause of Palestine.”
Maher Abdel-qader promotes a fundraiser for Reps. Summer Lee and Rashida Tlaib. (Fox News Digital screenshot of Maher Abdel-qader’s Facebook page)
Since Israel launched a counterattack against Hamas, Abdel-qader has attended pro-Palestinian protests in the United States and has posted anti-Israel messages on his Facebook page.
For example, on Oct. 19, Abdel-qader posted: “Israeli Nazis air strike (sic) on Ahli Arab Hospital killed more than 500 people stop the massacre now.”
In reality, a failed rocket launch from the Palestinian side was responsible for hitting the hospital. Despite this, Tlaib and others repeated the falsehood that Israelis struck it, even after reports had shown that was not the case.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., speaks during a demonstration, wherein she called for a cease-fire in Gaza, near the U.S. Capitol on Oct. 18, 2023. (AP Photo / Amanda Andrade-Rhoades)
And in addition to Tlaib, Abdel-qader has also shown support for several other progressive politicians, including fellow “Squad” member Cori Bush of Missouri.
Bush took part in a virtual Zoom fundraiser with Abdel-qader in September 2021, per his since-locked Instagram account. In November of that year, Abdel-qader posted a Bush fundraising flier for a reception hosted by the St. Louis Palestine Solidarity Committee and the Muslim Community of St. Louis, which solicited donations between $100 and $2,500 for Bush’s campaign.
It appears he donated $250 to her campaign for the fundraiser.
The controversial activist has also campaigned with several other Democrats, including New York City Mayor Eric Adams and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, among others.
Abdel-qader did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Fox News Digital’s Elizabeth Elkind and Cameron Cawthorne contributed to this report.
