Slotkin’s communications director, Austin Cook, attended the eight-day congressional staff delegation trip to the West Bank in August 2022.
The trip—sponsored by a group called the Rebuilding Alliance and co-led by the Holy Land Trust, which was described in the agenda as the "partner in the planning of this delegation"—also included meetings with the lawyers for a Palestinian terrorist imprisoned for a stabbing attack, anti-Israel NGOs, and groups leading a global boycott campaign against Israel. The trip did not include any meetings with pro-Israel officials.
The group's tour guide was Elias Deis, the executive director of the Holy Land Trust, a copy of the trip agenda filed with the House Committee on Ethics showed. Deis is also a city councilman in the West Bank who ran on the DFLP's party ticket, according to Palestinian media reports and his social media posts. Deis was listed as a member of a DFLP delegation that visited Ma'an News Agency in February 2022, six months before the congressional trip, according to a report by NGO Monitor, a pro-Israel watchdog group.
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