WASHINGTON – U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Detroit, went on NBC's "Late Night with Seth Meyers" on Monday night to defend and explain comments she made about the Holocaust and the human rights situation in the Palestinian territories.

She said Republican commentators who have accused her of anti-Semitism, including President Donald Trump, continue to misconstrue her words to sow discord and said a friend of hers described some of those commentators as "racist idiots."

"I will continue to speak truth to power, continue to uplift my grandmother (who lives in the West Bank) through love and that’s all I can do," Tlaib said. "(I will) Continue to share the human impact of what it means to be Palestinian in the occupied territories."

Tlaib, one of the first two Muslim women to serve in Congress and a Palestinian-American and an advocate for investigating whether President Donald Trump should be impeached, has been roundly criticized by Republicans, including Trump, for comments she made last week on a Yahoo News podcast.

In those comments, she spoke of a "calming feeling" she gets when thinking about the sacrifices made by the Palestinian people to create a safe haven for Jews in Israel after the Holocaust, which she described as a tragedy.

Critics accused of her being "calmed" by the Holocaust, with some, notably U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., calling her comments "exactly the kind of anti-Semitic lies that are spread to delegitimize the state of Israel" on FOX News' "Fox and Friends."

Many Democrats and others have rallied in support of Tlaib, including U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., a front-runner for the Democratic nomination for the presidency.

Speaking to Meyers, Tlaib again explained her remarks noting that Israel was "created as a safe haven for Jews around the world." She added, "There is something, in many ways, beautiful about (the fact) that my ancestors, many (who) had died, or had to give up their livelihood, their human dignity, to provide a safe haven for Jews in our world."

"That is something I wanted to recognize and kind of honor in some sort of way," she continued. "I also think it’s important because I want the Palestinian people to also find some sort of light in what’s happening. ... You know, in the end, I said, I want all of us to feel safe. All of us deserve human dignity, no matter our backgrounds, no matter our ethnicity. ... We all deserve that kind of equality and justice."

Tlaib — who also spoke of Detroit as the "most beautiful black city in the country, in the world" — has on other occasions made remarks to highlight human rights concerns over conditions faced by Palestinians in the occupied territories in Israel. In recent months, Republicans have increasingly attacked those comments and others critical of Israeli policies as being inherently anti-Semitic.

Read more:

President Trump slams Rep. Rashida Tlaib for Holocaust comments

How Detroit's Rashida Tlaib will make history in Washington

Contact Todd Spangler:tspangler@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter@tsspangler. Read more onMichigan politics and sign up for ourelections newsletter.