In Washington, D.C., the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the rise of anti-Muslim and antisemitic hate crimes across the U.S. Republican senators used the forum to condemn recent student-led pro-Palestine protests at university campuses and lashed out at the hearing’s Arab American witness, Maya Berry, executive director of the Arab American Institute. This is Republican Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana questioning Berry.

Maya Berry: “I think it’s exceptionally disappointing that you’re looking at an Arab American witness before you and saying, 'You support Hamas.'”

Sen. John Kennedy: “You know what’s disappointing to me?”

Maya Berry: “I do not support Hamas.”

Sen. John Kennedy: “You can’t bring yourself to say” —

Maya Berry: “I do not support Hamas or any” —

Sen. John Kennedy: — “you don’t support UNRWA, you don’t support Hamas, you don’t” —

Maya Berry: “I was very clear on my support for UNRWA.”

Sen. John Kennedy: — “support Hezbollah, and you don’t support Iran.” 

Maya Berry: “I oppose” —

Sen. John Kennedy: “You should hide your head in a bag.”

“You support Hamas, don’t you?” asked the Louisiana senator repeatedly as he conflated the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, UNRWA, with Hamas. Following that exchange, committee chair Senator Dick Durbin gave Maya Berry a chance to respond.

Maya Berry: “It’s regrettable that I, as I sit here, have experienced the very issue that we’re attempting to deal with today. The introduction of foreign policy is not how we keep Arab Americans or Jewish Americans or Muslim Americans or Black people or Asian Americans — anybody — safe. This has been, regrettably, a real disappointment, but very much an indication of the danger to our democratic institutions that we’re in now.”