Maya Berry, the executive director of the Arab American Institute, declined Tuesday to say that Hamas and Hezbollah want to destroy Israel.
Berry was called as a witness by Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee at a hearing that Republicans wanted to use to focus on antisemitism, but which committee chair Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL) expanded to include every kind of hate crimes, including against Arab, Muslim, and Palestinian Americans.
Ranking member Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) used his opening statement to remind Durbin that while the House had held ten hearings thus far to focus on the explosion of antisemitism, especially on college campuses, the Senate had held none. He also pointed out that it was difficult to be a Jewish student on campus today, and showed photos of pro-Hamas signs and graffiti, both on campus and outside Union Station in Washington, D.C., after a July protest.
(Durbin responded that he did not believe “prioritizing” antisemitism above other forms of hate crime was helpful.)
During his questioning of witnesses, Graham asked one Democrat witness, Kenneth Stern, director of the Bard Center for the Study of Hate, whether Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran wanted to destroy the Jewish state. “Absolutely,” he said.
Graham then asked Berry the same question. “I think these are complicated questions,” the Arab American Institute executive director replied.
Shaking his head, Graham said: “There’s nothing complicated about it. That’s the most ridiculous testimony ever given in this committee. If you think it is ‘complicated’ to figure out that Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran wants to kill all the Jews, I think I should not listen to anything else you’ve got to say. And I won’t.”
