The Michigan primary victory of Rashida Tlaib, a Palestinian-American who is expected to become the first Muslim woman to serve in the U.S. Congress, triggered an outpouring of joy in her ancestral village on Wednesday.
Relatives in Beit Our al-Foqa, a village in the northern West Bank where Tlaib's mother was born, greeted the news with a mixture of pride and hope that she will take on a U.S. administration widely seen as hostile to the Palestinian cause.
"It's a great honor for this small town," said Mohammed Tlaib, a former mayor of the village and a distant relative.
"It's a great honor for the Palestinian people to have Rashida in the Congress. For sure she will serve Palestine, for sure she will serve the interests of her nation. She is deeply rooted here."
Rashida Tlaib, a former state lawmaker, defeated five other candidates to win the Democratic nomination in her Michigan district in Tuesday's primary. She will run unopposed, setting her up to take the spot held since 1965 by John Conyers, who stepped down in December citing health reasons amid charges of sexual harassment.
While celebrating her win, Tlaib was embraced early Wednesday morning by her mother, Fatima, who briefly wrapped a Palestinian flag around Tlaib's shoulders.
"My mom is really, genuinely excited," Tlaib said of her victory.
The eldest of 14 children born to Palestinian immigrants in Detroit, the 42-year-old Tlaib advocates progressive positions associated with the Bernie Sanders wing of the Democratic Party, such as universal health care, a higher minimum wage, environmental protection and affordable university tuition.
As a state lawmaker, she sought to defend Detroit's poor, taking on refineries and a billionaire trucking magnate whom she accused of polluting city neighborhoods. On the campaign trail, she criticized the influence of "big money" on politics and took aim at U.S. President Donald Trump, whom she famously heckled in 2016 while he was delivering a speech in Detroit.
While noting her Palestinian heritage, her website makes no mention of her views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In a 2016 op-ed explaining why she disrupted then-presidential candidate Trump, she described herself as an "American, parent, Muslim, Arab-American, and woman."
In an interview on Wednesday, Tlaib said her grandfather emigrated from Palestine to Brazil during the Depression and eventually moved to Detroit to find better opportunities.
Her father grew up in east Jerusalem, she said.
"When he was 19, he joined his father here [in the U.S.]," she said. "At 27, my grandmother grabbed him by the ear and took him to Palestine and said, 'You are going to marry a good Arab woman.'"
While Tlaib would be the first Muslim woman to occupy a seat in the U.S. Congress, she would not be the first Palestinian-American. U.S. Rep. Justin Amash, a Republican lawmaker from western Michigan, is the son of a Palestinian refugee father and Syrian immigrant mother. He is a Christian.
In the West Bank, family members were jubilant as news of Tlaib's victory came in early Wednesday.
Tlaib's uncle and aunt spoke via iPad with her mother, Fatima, in Michigan.
"Thank God. Thank God," her mother said. "This is for the Arabs and Muslims all over the world."
She said her daughter detests Trump and that "God willing" she would defeat him and become the next U.S. president.
"She stood up to him during his campaign. God willing, she will do it again and win," Fatima Tlaib said.
Rashida Tlaib's uncle Bassam, 54, said the family always believed she had a bright future and has high hopes for her career in Washington.
"She told the family that she wants to run for election to defend human rights, women's rights, immigrant rights and the Palestinian rights," he said, adding that the Democrats are much better for the Palestinians than the Republicans are.
"There is a space in the Democratic Party to defend Palestinian issues," he said.
The soon-to-be congresswoman was married in Beit Our al-Foqa in 1997 and last visited the village in 2006.
