A little outside my usual lane, but this needs to be said. 1/2 Since Abdul’s interview with Ezra Klein, I’ve watched parts of our movement go after him. On Wednesday, protesters chanted “traitor” at Zohran. I know I’ll be attacked for saying this, but I can’t stay quiet anymore while we turn on two of the most powerful advocates for Palestine in US politics. I think we’re missing the bigger picture. Zohran and Abdul are not only reaching millions of Americans outside our bubble, they're changing the way those Americans see Arabs and Muslims. For decades, Hollywood portrayed us as terrorists and religious extremists, a threat to the West. In Reel Bad Arabs, Jack Shaheen documented how Hollywood systematically depicted Arabs as villains across more than 900 films, and that was even before 9/11. I have no doubt that this dehumanization contributed enormously to the lack of empathy Palestinians received for decades. Now look at Abdul and Zohran. They're putting Arabs and Muslims in the middle of American political life as competent, principled American politicians, talking about healthcare, housing and the things that affect Americans' daily lives, without abandoning Palestine. A perfect example of that is Abdul's interviews on Fox. If you haven't seen them, I urge you to watch them before passing any further judgment. He was so compelling and so eloquent that even Jesse Watters, the Fox host, said afterward: “I like him. I don’t want to like him. I like him for some stupid reason.” And it's not just that. Zohran warned that Gaza was on the brink of genocide on October 13, 2023, and Abdul was calling it a genocide by October 21. Long before they became prominent political figures, they took enormous risks by challenging the boundaries of acceptable political discourse. And look how much those boundaries have shifted since. Without a doubt, Zohran taking that stance and winning in New York home to the largest Jewish community outside Israel was one of the biggest drivers of the broader shift we’re seeing within the Democratic Party. Kamala Harris, who many hate for denying and enabling the genocide in Gaza is now endorsing Abdul, who calls Gaza a genocide and wants to stop arms sales to Israel. If that isn't a win for the movement, what is? And yet instead of celebrating it, we're angry at Abdul for receiving her endorsement. Abdul did all this while also acknowledging the Jewish trauma from the Holocaust in his interview with Ezra Klein. Isn't that exactly what we've always wished politicians would do: represent all their constituents, including Jewish people, while refusing to compromise their moral principles? And that trauma is real for Jewish people. What we Palestinians hate is how Israel has used that trauma to justify our oppression and dispossession. Just to clarify: I don’t agree with everything they both say either. In the Ezra Klein interview, I wish Abdul had talked more about Palestinian trauma and what happened in 1948 as people don't understand it in the same way we all understand the trauma of the Holocaust. But why does the responsibility of explaining that fall solely on him? Yes, he could have done better, but so could we as a movement.

Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband: 'I want to say to the millions of people in this country and indeed elsewhere, who have been moved and outraged by the plight of the Palestinian people. We hear you. You were right' trib.al/uh5mVzw 📺 Sky 501, Virgin 602

Abdul El-Sayed on Israel-Palestine: I understand on both sides of this debate, we're also dealing with a lot of trauma. A lot of trauma. I understand that for a lot of Jewish Americans, there's the trauma of the Holocaust and the need to have a refuge. I understand that. And I also understand that for a lot of Palestinian Americans and Palestinians everywhere, there's the trauma of the Nakba. We've got to be able to create the circumstances within which both of these deeply traumatized people can have a conversation built on principle. But to me, the answer has to be principle. It has to be.