Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., repeatedly suggested a leading Arab American activist is a Hamas supporter when she testified Tuesday at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on hate crimes, and he told her she should hide her “head in a bag.”

The activist, Maya Berry, said repeatedly that she did not support Hamas and was “disappointed” by the minuteslong exchange toward the end of a hearing called “A Threat to Justice Everywhere: Stemming the Tide of Hate Crimes in America.”

“You are the executive director of the Arab American Institute, are you not?” Kennedy said at the beginning of the exchange. She said she was and agreed with Kennedy that she is a Democratic activist.

“You support Hamas, do you not?” Kennedy asked, referring to the militant group behind the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks on Israel. The question prompted gasps and surprised laughs from the audience.

“Senator, oddly enough, I’m going to say thank you for that question, because it demonstrates the purpose of our hearing today in a very effective way,” Berry responded. Kennedy then cut her off and insisted he needed a yes-or-no answer.

  • BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca
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    1 day ago

    Does it really matter? They supported it for at least a few months after it happened. They were happy that Hamas killed a thousand Israeli civilians and took hostages.

    That being said, I mentioned it has dropped because of the consequences they faced, the latest numbers came out yesterday or the day before. It’s now down to 39% support for the attack.

    https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/palestinian-poll-finds-big-drop-support-oct-7-attack-2024-09-17/

      • BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca
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        30 minutes ago

        The IDF can’t be trusted to tell you the sky is blue. Even if I support Israel’s right to fight I’m well aware of how they operate from a propaganda standpoint.

        They even say they don’t think the Pollsters were working with Hamas, but that Hamas was somehow clandestinely changing the results anyways. Suuure they are. The group that can barely function is somehow tampering with the results of the polls without the pollster noticing.

        “The IDF said the documents do not prove that PCPSR was cooperating with Hamas, but rather that the terror group was conducting clandestine actions to fraudulently influence the results of the polls.”

        All the IDF says is “we found confidential documents that show they changed the numbers,” do you know how easy that would be to fake?

        • Jiggle_Physics@lemmy.world
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          15 minutes ago

          About as easy as it is to fake poll entries. The IDF also has a reason to want people to believe Hamas is very popular. It is a lot better of a look that all the civilians dying are super pro Hamas, than if Hamas only had a minority support.