US Senate hearing exposes deep bias as Arab activist faces vile attacks

During a US Congressional hearing that was designed to counter the unprecedented increase in hate crimes nationwide, an American Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) attacked an Arab American community advocate, shedding light on the overarching attitude of the Senate to suppress Palestinian-American voices.

The hearing, held on Tuesday in Washington, DC, took place in the shadow of Israel's war on Gaza and was supposed to explore the wave of hate-fuelled violence sweeping the nation.

Instead, it devolved into political mudslinging, with Republican lawmakers targeting Arab American advocates and derailing discussions meant to provide accountability and justice.

One of the most glaring omissions during the hearing was the failure to acknowledge Wadea Al Fayoume, the 6-year-old Palestinian-American boy, who was brutally murdered in Illinois last year in what has been recognised as a hate crime.

Wadea's mother, Hanan Shaheen, was among the attendees, alongside prominent figures like Yaqeen Institute founder Dr Omar Suleiman and emergency physician Dr Thaer Ahmad.

However, the killing of her son, who was stabbed 26 times, was conspicuously absent from the discussion.

"I was surprised that these Republican Congress folks could not even muster up the compassion to offer a word of condolence," Dr Omar Suleiman told TRT World in an interview after the hearing.

"[It] was extremely telling of the cruelty, the callousness, the apathy that exists in the halls of Congress today, especially as it relates to Palestinian life. I was particularly disgusted to be honest with you."

'You support Hamas'

Instead of discussing Wadea's death or the uptick in anti-Arab and anti-Muslim hate crimes, Republican senators used the hearing as a platform to attack Maya Berry, Executive Director of the Arab American Institute, who was the sole Arab witness called to testify.

Senator Kennedy began by reading her biography, which noted her advocacy for Arab and Middle Eastern causes in the US, before launching into a series of inflammatory and unfounded accusations.

He asked Berry, "You support Hamas, do you not?"

Following up with similarly loaded questions about her supposed support for Hezbollah, Kennedy’s line of questioning represented the kind of anti-Arab sentiment that Palestinian Americans had come to fear from this hearing.

Berry handled the attacks with composure, responding to Kennedy's provocations by saying, "Oddly enough, I’m going to say thank you for that question. It demonstrates the purpose of our hearing today."

She denied any support for Hamas and quickly shifted focus back to the real issue: "You asking that question very much puts focus on the issue of hate in our country."

But the attacks did not stop there. At one point, Kennedy even told Berry that she "should hide her head in a bag," an expression that epitomised the hostile atmosphere of the hearing.

Wadee Act introduced

Throughout the second half of the hearing, Republican senators, including Ted Cruz (R-TX), Josh Cornyn (R-TX), and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), took turns deriding Berry and Arab Americans.

Instead of focusing on the very real hate crimes that had brought Shaheen and others to testify, the senators shifted the conversation to free speech policies on college campuses, criticising student protests against Israel's actions in Gaza.

Asked how the concept of political violence became so warped in today's senate hearing, Suleiman responded, "Because it's American exceptionalism, right? America sees what happens to it, not what it does. [It sees] what happens to a very specific part of it and not to the whole of it. And we've never been a part of America."

Despite the disappointment of many attendees, there was one small legislative victory that came out of the hearing: the introduction of the Wadee Act in both chambers of Congress.

The Act, named in honour of Wadea Al Fayoume, aims to address the rise in hate crimes against Arab and Muslim communities.

Dr Suleiman called it a "success," but emphasised that this was just one step in a long fight for justice.

"It requires people to simply insist that they will not be intimidated into silence, and we will not allow our land, our identity, our cause to disappear without us being visible [and] without us standing, especially with those that have unfortunately faced the brunt of this hatred."