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ARAB AMERICAN ACTIVISM Busboys Hosts Dinner with Rashida Tlaib

Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) joins Andy Shallal for a virtual dinner party.

Busboys and Poets restaurants hold virtual dinner parties every Friday night, hosted by CEO and founder Andy Shallal. The special dinner guest on Sept. 25 was Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (D-MI). Tlaib is the oldest of 14 children, born and raised in Detroit, the proud daughter of Palestinian immigrant parents. Tlaib made history in 2008 by becoming the first Muslim woman to ever serve in the Michigan legislature. She has spent her career raising “good trouble” in Detroit, Shallal said in his introduction.

“Congress wasn’t ready for me,” Tlaib admitted, noting that legislation moves very slowly and doesn’t seem to connect with people’s needs. She fretted about Congress’ lack of urgency in lowering the cost of prescription drugs, fighting poverty and racism. Every move is transactional and bogged down in studies, Tlaib lamented. “How many studies do we need to prove that poverty kills people?...What are we waiting for?”

She also decried the influence of lobbies. For example, when she fought to make clean water a human right for her constituents, who couldn’t pay their water bills, she was told to “talk to the utility company” instead of working on legislation to make water affordable and simplify the water reconnection process.

The pandemic showed the “ugly face of this country’s economic divide,” Tlaib noted. Stimulus checks bailed out large corporations that hoarded the money and help didn’t reach needy communities. Tlaib also commented on Trump’s xenophobic platform and broken immigration system, as well as for-profit detention centers that separate children from their parents.

Finally Tlaib charged that the Trump and Netanyahu administrations were gas lighting and misleading the American and Israeli public about the racist and violent goings on in Israel.

Somehow Palestinians struggling under oppression retain a “culture of happiness,” Tlaib marvelled. They’re angry, then they joke and continue to find joy in their everyday lives. —Delinda C. Hanley Sahtain! An Online Brunch with Palestinian Farmers

In-person fundraisers and gatherings have changed due to COVID, but Palestinians, like usual, are demonstrating they can thrive amid adversity. For an hour on Sept. 20, viewers were treated to a virtual tour with Growing Palestine, an organization focused on empowering farmers and supporting Palestine’s agricultural heritage. Samir Salem, a filmmaker and digital media producer, escorted the armchair travelers and introduced us to “Heirloom Seed Queen” Vivien Sansour, who showed us around an organic farm surrounded by Israeli settlements outside Bethlehem. Since the pandemic farmers have been planting food on this communal farm, which features solar power, worm compost boxes and beehives. They’ve also built a water cistern to collect rainfall and planted flowers to “keep pollinators as well as our hearts happy,” Sansour said.

Viewers also visited Abu Mohamed’s farm in Al-Bireh—land which is surrounded by coiling roads—and also community-supported. “If Israelis continue to hem us in, we will not starve,” he said, adding “this land is something worth living for.”

Dr.MazinQumsiyeh,fromBethlehem University’sCenterforBiodiversityandSustainability,remindedlistenersthatPalestine waspartoftheFertileCrescentwhichsuppliedEuropewithfruitsandvegetables,long beforeIsraelwasestablished.“We’restill around,”heemphasized,despiteIsrael’sattemptstotakethelandandtheinequityof waterdistribution.“Israelisgetfourorfive timesorsometimeseighttimesmorewater thanPalestinians,”herevealed.Hisuniversityistrainingstudentstogrowtheirown food,evenshowingthemhowtogrowvegetablesonthewallsofrefugeecamps.

The brunch also featured Laila ElHaddad, author of Gaza Kitchen, who