Despite the unclear motive, the news of Samantha Woll’s slaying sparked fresh backlash against Tlaib on social media.
The stabbing death of a Detroit synagogue board president on Saturday has ignited a wave of criticism of Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who has been under mounting scrutiny after blaming Israel for a deadly strike on a Gaza hospital.
Samantha Woll, 40, who led the Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue since 2022, was found stabbed multiple times early Saturday morning outside of her home in Detroit’s Lafayette Park neighborhood, according to local media reports.
Woll was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the Detroit Police Department (DPD). A motive has not been determined, nor had a suspect been made public as of Saturday evening, the department said, adding that the investigation is ongoing.
Despite the unclear motive, the news of Woll’s slaying sparked fresh backlash against Tlaib on social media, with people blasting the Michigan Democrat over a post she shared last week on X, formerly Twitter.
Tlaib, who is of Palestinian descent, has been under increasing scrutiny since Hamas‘ surprise attack on Israel on October 7, with fellow lawmakers demanding she condemn the militant group’s actions. The Michigan Democrat previously released a statement mourning the loss of life on both Israeli and Palestinian sides, but she has not directly condemned Hamas‘ attack.
Shortly after the attack on Southern Israel earlier this month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country is „at war“ and cut off food, fuel, electricity, and medicine supplies into Gaza, home to an estimated around 2.3 million people, including roughly 600 Palestinian-Americans.
