On Tuesday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution to censure Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) over comments she made advocating for Palestinians to be free. Tlaib is the only Palestinian-American member of the House.
The move came amid the unrelenting bombing of Gaza, which saw residential areas targeted and more than 200 people dead in a 24-hour period. Israel has killed at least 10,569 Palestinians, including over 4,200 children, since October 7.
Less than two weeks ago, a resolution to censure Tlaib pushed by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) failed. Greene, who blamed California’s 2018 wildfires on a secret Jewish space laser, accused Tlaib of “antisemitic activity” for criticizing Israel.
Greene sought to reintroduce the measure, but ditched the effort when Rep. Rich McCormick (R-GA) put forward a separate resolution.
No Democrats endorsed the original Greene measure. In fact, 23 Republicans voted to table the measure. However, 212 Republicans and 22 Democrats voted for the McCormick resolution. It passed by a tally of 234-188. Four members voted present.
After the vote, 70 Democrats signed onto a statement led by Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL) that condemns the “river to the sea” phrase “as a rallying cry for the destruction of the State of Israel and genocide of the Jewish people.”
The second GOP bid was pushed after Tlaib defended the popular slogan, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” The congresswoman had posted a video on Twitter accusing the Biden administration of supporting genocide in Palestine and warning him that his complicity could impact the 2024 presidential election. That video depicted protesters chanting the slogan.
In a follow-up tweet Tlaib wrote, “From the river to the sea is an aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence, not death, destruction, or hate. My work and advocacy is always centered in justice and dignity for all people no matter faith or ethnicity.”
On Twitter, American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) National Executive Director Abed Ayoub points out that criticisms of the slogan from pro-Israel groups have shifted in recent weeks.
“On May 3, 2022 the ADL website referred to the slogan as, ‘a slogan commonly featured in pro-Palestinian campaigns and chanted at demonstrations.'” he writes. “Nowhere in the 2022 description is there a mention of antisemitism…On October 26, 2023, the position on the website was changed to include, ‘is an antisemitic slogan’.”
“The whole backgrounder changed on 10/26,” he continued. “The change came as public opinion on Israel and the genocide began shifting. Why the change now? The change in public opinion has led to a campaign and tactic to silence pro-Palestinian and pro-Peace voices. Rather than talking about Israel’s genocide, people are debating a chant, and targeting Rashida Tlaib. The distraction is part of the objective.”
A House debate on the resolution saw fiery speeches from both sides of the issue.
“This is not about a First Amendment issue. Rashida Tlaib has a right to spew antisemitic vitriol, even call for the destruction of the Jewish state,” declared McCormick. “But the House of Representatives also has the right to make it clear that her hate speech does not reflect the opinion of the chamber. And that’s what this resolution is about. When you’ve called for the annihilation of a country and its people — if that’s not worthy of censure, what is?”
“When she chants ‘From the river to the sea’ she believes it!,” said Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY). “She believes Israel should be eradicated.”
“We are human beings just like anyone else. My sity, my grandmother, like all Palestinians, just wants to live her life with the freedom and human dignity we all deserve,” said Tlaib holding back tears. “Speaking up to save lives, Mr. Chair. No matter faith, no matter ethnicity, should not be controversial in this chamber. The cries of the Palestinian and Israeli children sound no different to me. What I don’t understand is why the cries of Palestinians sound different to you all.”
Tlaib also referenced the fact that most Democratic voters agree with her position. “71% of Michigan Democrats support a ceasefire,” she told House members. “So you can try to censure me, but you can’t silence their voices.”
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) brought up the genocidal language used by GOP Rep. Max Miller (R-OH), which failed to generate a censure. “It is glaring hypocrisy when you have Republicans on the other side of the aisle trying to create definitions and saying ‘Rashida wants to annihilate people’ when Max Miller himself went on TV and said ‘we’re turning Gaza into a parking lot and we want to annihilate Palestinians,’ said Omar.
“Nobody condemned him on that side of the aisle,” she continued. “What is true here is that every single one of them [Republicans] has not acknowledged the fact that Palestinians are dying in their tens of thousands but will continue to say it is us who are not acknowledging humanity. Rashida will stand strong and the Palestinian movement will continue for liberation until every single Palestinian has the right to live in liberty.”
On Monday, Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-CA) filed a censure resolution against Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL) for comments he made last week comparing Palestinian civilians to the Nazis. That resolution is set to be considered this week.
In addition to her House floor comments, Tlaib put out a statement on the situation. “It’s a shame my colleagues are more focused on silencing me than they are on saving lives, as the death toll in Gaza surpasses 10,000,” it reads. “Many of them have shown me that Palestinian lives simply do not matter to them, but I still do not police their rhetoric or actions. Rather than acknowledge the voice and perspective of the only Palestinian American in Congress, my colleagues have resorted to distorting my positions in resolutions filled with obvious lies. I have repeatedly denounced the horrific targeting and killing of civilians by Hamas and the Israeli government, and have mourned the Israeli and Palestinian lives lost.”
Perhaps it is time to recall the truth Ilhan Omar spoke before being upbraided by Speaker Pelosi who was worried about fundraising: “It’s all about the Benjamins…”. It is hard to believe that so many would censure an advocate of freedom for all “between the river and the sea”. My view would be the end of a Jewish state and the evolution to a state for all its citizens but killing the archaic belief in an ethnocratic state will be difficult to be sure.
Nothing she said deserved censure or censorship. The fact it was censured suggests deep and dangerous decline in American values, ethics and integrity.
Rep. Tlaib is the first representative since the Civil War to be censured for speaking out on her political beliefs. Who was the previous one?
Representative Joshua Giddings of Ohio was censured in 1842 for violation of what was known as the “Gag Rule,” imposed by the pro-slavery Democratic Party majority in 1836, after a flood of anti-slavery petitions and resolutions had been submitted to the House. This rule, in effect until 1844, barred any discussion or proposal in the House on the subject of emancipation.
Rep. Tlaib should stand tall, knowing that it is those censuring her who need to be ashamed.
It is so disheartening to witness western countries including my own, Canada, silence and censor voices speaking up for the human rights of Palestinians. It is especially egregious when the target for attack seem to be disproportionately women of colour. In Ontario, Canada, an elected member of the provincial parliament was similarly censured in the legislature for committing the thought crime of voicing support for Palestinians. She is black and disabled. Leading the attack is a privileged white male Premier with a checkered past who is currently being investigated by the RCMP for possible criminal wrongdoing.
We have moral monsters running our countries, and mainstream media. So much for free speech and a “rules based world order”, as our supposedly progressive PM likes to frequently invoke. Hypocrisy seems an inadequate term to describe the selective application of international law when it comes Palestinians. How many Palestinian children must be killed before western guilt over their ancestors antisimitism is allayed?
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