AMHERST — “Don’t breathe. Be invisible. We don’t want trouble.”

As a woman who grew up under legal occupation in Palestine, these words became mantras for Fatima Alabed out of necessity. Her daughter, however, Michigan congresswoman and first-generation Palestinian American Rashida Tlaib, is far from invisible and one of the more controversial voices on the U.S. House floor. Tlaib ventured to UMass Amherst with a message for more than 400 University of Massachusetts students, staff and faculty in a visit last Friday: “I’m so incredibly proud of you,” she said, referring to the stand they took last spring in setting up a pro-Palestinian encampments in solidarity with those in Gaza and the West Bank.

The action led to 134 arrests when UMass Chancellor Javier Reyes called in external police to break up the nonviolent demonstration.

Tlaib applauded supporters of the Palestinian cause while chiding what she sees as war-hungry institutions, and the university on its duty to protect First Amendment rights on campus.

“I want you to know the Palestinian people and now the Lebanese people see that not all of America wants them to die,” Tlaib said, while repeatedly highlighting the work of grassroots groups and passionate individuals who motivate her causes in the halls of the nation’s Capitol.

Tlaib is the only Palestinian American in Congress, and has been a leading voice against America’s military aid to Israel and for the Palestinian people in Gaza, the West Bank and the U.S. She was censured by the House last year over rhetoric she used following the deadly Oct. 7 attacks on Israel by Hamas.

A recorded introduction before Tlaib took the stage was given by students Maha and Leila Moushback, who were barred from being present — and are barred from campus in general — since their involvement in the pro-Palestinian demonstrations in May.

They were among the students, faculty, and staff to face consequences for establishing the encampment on the state’s flagship campus, just days before the end of the semester.

“No student should be met with academic repercussions,” Tlaib said, voicing her disapproval for the “escalating repression” of the First Amendment on college campuses across the country.

She went on to say, “So believe in the work you are all doing. I know it’s shameful that university administrators and government officials in our country have been sending militarized police forces to stop our students from exercising their First Amendment rights,” calling it “outrageous” that students in the United States have been targeted with tear gas, flash grenades, and tasers.

“This state-sanctioned violence can only be seen as an effort to silence students protesting their university’s complicity in the Israeli government’s apartheid and genocide,” she said.

Organizing the event was professor emeritus Sut Jhally, who has put together similar events supporting the Palestinian cause. Jhally said that this may be the last presentation of its kind on campus, depending on how Reyes decides to address support for Gaza going forward.

“I have no doubt Chancellor Reyes was receiving intense pressure from political leaders and donors to clamp down hard and fast,” Jhally said in reference to the arrests in the spring.

“That pressure will be nothing compared to what is coming next,” he added, in an address that kicked off the night.

“Just last week, Donald Trump announced that when he comes to power again, universities that allowed pro-Palestinian speech would lose accreditation and federal funding. We are going to find out very soon if Chancellor Reyes is going to be a chancellor for those who want to censor speech, like Donald Trump, or whether he will work to protect the intellectual and scholarly integrity of his faculty, staff, and students. Will he be a chancellor for ‘them,’ or for ‘us?”’

‘This is about saving lives’

Tlaib spoke on the urgency of the Palestinian cause.

“This is about war crimes. This is about saving lives,” she said, giving Israli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the nickname of “genocidal maniac” throughout her address.

“I’ve never seen so many passionate speeches (in Congress) until the Pentagon budget comes up,” Tlaib said. “It’s unbelievable to me, but when folks are saying, ‘Let’s save children, let’s save lives, let’s save a whole people from ethnic cleansing, let’s stop this genocide,’ it’s crickets,” she said.

She encouraged those present to be a source of social change and to not be invisible.

“You all know this dissent is a fundamental American value ... Our country literally has a history of students leading movements for change by protesting injustice and challenging those people in power.”

She continued, “Change doesn’t come from who’s in the White House. It doesn’t come from who’s in Congress. It comes from us in the streets. Do you think that we got the Civil Rights Act because the president of the United States woke up one day and said ‘hmm, that’s a really good idea?’ No, people boycotted, people were dying — literally.”

Ava Harrington, a social thought and political economy major who attended the event, said the way the Palestinian side of the conflict is being discredited is “grotesque,” adding that “it’s not about being involved in politics, this is about human dignity.”

Her friend, Cecilia Lopez, praised Tlaib for being the loudest voice of dissent to Israel, calling it “historic” that she took the time to speak at UMass.