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US Congresswoman and lawyer Rashida Tlaib has stood by her comments on Israel and the Holocaust after drawing intense criticism, accusing her detractors of purposefully “policing my words, twisting [and] turning them to ignite vile attacks”. 

During an interview with Yahoo’s Skullduggery podcast that was released on Friday, Tlaib was asked about her support for a one-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“There’s kind of a calming feeling, I always tell folks, when I think of the Holocaust, and the tragedy of the Holocaust,” she answered.

“. . . And the fact that it was my ancestors, Palestinians, who lost their land and some lost their lives, their livelihood, their human dignity. Their existence in many ways, have been wiped out, and some people’s passports.

“I mean, just all of it was in the name of trying to create a safe haven for Jews, post the Holocaust, post the tragedy and the horrific persecution of Jews across the world at that time, and I love the fact that it was my ancestors that provided that, right, in many ways.” 

“But they did it in a way that took their human dignity away, right, and it was forced on them. And so when I think about a one-state, I think about the fact that, why couldn’t we do it in a better way?”

“I’m coming from a place of love, for equality and justice, I truly am,” she explained. 

“I am humbled by the fact that it was my ancestors that had to suffer for that to happen, but I will not turn my back and allow others to hijack it and say that it’s some extremist approach because they’re coming from a place of… whatever it is… of division, inequality,” Tlaib added. 

Reactions did not wait, and Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, accused Tlaib of anti-Semitism and of trying to rewrite history with her comments, while President Donald Trump called Tlaib’s remarks “horrible and highly insensitive”.

Tlaib accused her critics of advancing a “racist and hateful agenda”.

“The Congresswoman did not in any way praise the Holocaust, nor did she say the Holocaust itself brought a calming feeling to her,” her team said in a statement.

The statement added that the criticism was “dangerous, and increases hateful rhetoric from those who want to cause harm to oppressed people”.

“The Republican Party has reached a new low,” it added.

-Al Jazeera