Shortly before an exclusive interview with Al-Monitor in a modest hotel in Tel Aviv, US Rep. Keith Ellison had just returned from a visit to the Gaza Strip. The 50-year-old Democrat from Minnesota, who in 2006 was the first Muslim to be elected to Congress, does not belong to mainstream politics. He proudly champions human rights issues, peace and reconciliation.
Ellison says that his mother never believed that she would live to see the day there was a black man in the White House. Ellison himself was arrested at a human rights rally and laments the discrimination against African-Americans, which reared its ugly head following the recent acquittal of the man who had been charged with the murder of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin in Florida. Although his constituency includes a significant number of Jews, many of whom, according to Ellison, voted for him, he does not hesitate to make statements that will not make him a favorite on the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s (AIPAC) monitoring lists.
