In her address to the 2021 Democratic Socialists of America National Convention, Rashida Tlaib accused Israel of cutting off the water supply to the Palestinians and, while self-identifying as a Black woman, also accused Israel of carrying out a military occupation of Detroit and cutting off the water supply to the Black residents of that city as well. In just a few sentences, Tlaib managed to express a shocking number of anti-semitic tropes.

“For me as a Palestinian-American, we also need to recognize as I think about my family and Palestine that continue to live under military occupation and how that really interacts with this beautiful Black city that I grew up in. I always tell people that cutting people off from water is violence. And they do it from Gaza to Detroit. And it’s a way to control people, to oppress people and it’s those structures that we continue to fight against,” she said. “I know you all understand the structure we’ve been living under right now is designed by those who exploit the rest of us, for their own profit. I always say to people ‘I don’t care if it’s around the issue of global rights, and our fight to free Palestine, or to pushing back against those who don’t believe in a minimum wage or those who believe we don’t have a right to healthcare and so much more.’ And I tell those same people, that if you open the curtain and look behind the curtain, it’s the same people who make money and—yes they do—off of racism, off of these broken policies. There is someone there making money and you saw it, it was so exposed during the pandemic.”

“Because of all those structures—everything that was set up, they made record profit when we were all having some of the challenging, most difficult times of our lifetimes, at that moment. And again, they made record profit, so if anything this pandemic has just exposed what we are fighting against,” she said.

Anti-Defamation League (ADL) President Jonathan Greenblatt tweeted out his indignation at her claims.

“Stunning to hear @RashidaTlaib claim ‘behind the curtain,’ those who prevent a ‘free Palestine’ are the ‘same people’ who exploit ‘regular Americans.’ We’ve heard this kind of ugly #antisemitic dog whistling before, but it’s appalling when it comes from a member of Congress,” Greenblatt tweeted.

The American Jewish Committee also reacted.

“[Tlaib] has once again used an anti-Semitic trope claiming that jews profit from racism in America,” AJC tweeted. “Enough is enough. Rep. Tlaib’s ugly rhetoric must be denounced by all.”

William Daroff, the CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organization, outlined the implicit anti-Semitism in Tlaib’s statement.

“In comments linking the situation in Gaza to unrelated conditions in Detroit, she described a shadowy force acting behind the curtains in both places and around the world, controlling a system which is ‘designed by those who exploit the rest of us, for their own profit,’ ” according to a joint statement from Conference president and CEO William Daroff, chair Dianne Lob and vice chair Malcolm Hoenlein. “Through her pointing to the tensions between Israel and Gaza, and saying that ‘they do it from Gaza to Detroit,’ it is clear that Rep. Tlaib is suggesting that the Jews are the uniting factor.”

Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of Tlaib’s diatribe is that it is counterfactual. Israel provides water and electricity to the Palestinian Authority in Judea and Samaria as well as to Gaza. The government of Gaza is hugely delinquent in paying for these services.

In addition, the Israeli company Watergen donated one of their devices to a church in Flint, Michigan to help alleviate the water crisis. The device literally provides clean water from thin air. Watergen also donated two of their commercial-grade devices to Gaza. The company has done so in several impoverished locations around the world including the Navajo Nation and South Africa.