You knew this was going to cause a problem: Eleven students from the University of Michigan were charged for their roles in the pro-Hamas mayhem last spring that engulfed college campuses nationwide. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, a Democrat, is now being attacked by Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and being accused of bias for prosecuting cases involving pro-Hamas agitators. Nessel highlighted why these attacks are antisemitic.
First, Tlaib oozes antisemitism and is a staunch pro-Hamas apparatchik. Second, as Nessel told CNN's Jake Tapper, you don't need to be Angela Lansbury to figure out that Tlaib is saying that Nessel's Jewish faith prevents her from being impartial:
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel (D) says that Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) accused her of bias in prosecuting students because she is Jewish.
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) September 24, 2024
Nessel says that Tlaib is "anti-Semitic" and says she "intentionally" lied about what the charges were that the students face pic.twitter.com/NZsqEXthhd
Here's the story about the charges that were filed (via Detroit News):
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said Thursday she is charging 11 people with crimes in connection with alleged incidents involving protests against Israel's war with Hamas in Gaza at the University of Michigan, setting off criticism from a fellow Democrat and an Islamic group about targeting demonstrators.
Nessel's office said in a release that most of those charged were UM students and alumni who were involved in creating a pro-Palestinian encampment on the university's Diag "consisting of tents and perimeter fencing, that grew over the course of a month to an estimated 60 tents on the site." The encampment was established to build pressure on UM officials to divest from Israeli companies and firms that contribute to Israel's war with Hamas in Gaza, but the Board of Regents has repeatedly said it won't change because of a policy that shields the endowment from political pressures.
And the antisemitic blow-up that followed (via Detroit Free Press):
Tlaib accused Nessel of singling out pro-Palestinian protesters in bringing the charges in an interview with the Detroit Metro Times. "We've had the right to dissent, the right to protest," Tlaib told the alternative weekly. "We've done it for climate, the immigrant rights movement, for Black lives, and even around issues of injustice among water shutoffs. But it seems that the attorney general decided if the issue was Palestine, she was going to treat it differently, and that alone speaks volumes about possible biases within the agency she runs." The piece did not quote Tlaib as referencing Nessel's Jewish identity.
Last week, Tlaib found herself depicted in a cartoon drawing depicting her as a target of the deadly explosions that killed and injured civilians and Hezbollah fighters last week for which the Lebanese militant group blamed Israel, according to reporting from USA TODAY. In the cartoon, a pager is shown smoking on Tlaib's desk. "Odd, my pager just exploded," Tlaib's thought bubble in the cartoon reads.
Nessel joined other Democrats who decried the depiction as bigoted. "Rashida's religion should not be used in a cartoon to imply that she's a terrorist. It's Islamophobic and wrong," Nessel wrote in a social media post on X last Friday.
But Nessel also weighed in with her own response to Tlaib's condemnation of the attorney general's leadership. "Just as Rashida should not use my religion to imply I cannot perform my job fairly as Attorney General. It's anti-Semitic and wrong," Nessel wrote.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer refused to take sides until now:
Whitmer defends Nessel, labels Tlaib’s bias claims ‘antisemitic’ https://t.co/acUG7BV2Nl
— MLive (@MLive) September 24, 2024
Also, the cartoon depicting Tlaib having a Hezbollah pager and it exploding was funny.