The U.S. House of Representatives voted on Tuesday night to censure Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., for “promoting false narratives” surrounding Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel and “calling for the destruction of the state of Israel.”
The motion, introduced by Rep. Richard McCormick, R-Ga., passed 234 to 188. Twenty-two Democrats voted in favor of censuring Tlaib, and four Republicans voted against doing so. One Democrat and three Republicans abstained.
“Rep. Rashida Tlaib, within 24 hours of the October 7 barbaric attack on Jewish citizens of the State of Israel, representing the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust, defended the brutal rapes, murders, beheadings and kidnapping — including of Americans — by Hamas as justified ‘resistance’ to the ‘apartheid state,” the resolution said.
The motion further accused Tlaib of advocating for the destruction of Israel.
“Rep. Tlaib published on social media a video containing the phrase ‘from the river to the sea,’ which is widely recognized as a genocidal call to violence to destroy the state of Israel and its people to replace it with a Palestinian state extending from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea,” the resolution said. “She doubled down on this call to violence by falsely describing ‘from the river to the sea’ as ‘an aspirational call for freedom, human rights and peaceful coexistence’ despite it clearly entailing Israel’s destruction and denial of its fundamental right to exist.”
ICYMI: Last night, I voted in favor of H.Res. 845 – the resolution to censure Rep. Rashida Tlaib.
Rep. Tlaib promoted false narratives regarding the 10/7 Hamas attack & repeatedly called for the destruction of Israel.
This resolution passed with a bipartisan vote of 234-188. pic.twitter.com/BXRlpAoaqm
— Congressman Byron Donalds (@RepDonaldsPress) November 8, 2023
In a speech on the House floor, Tlaib argued that criticizing Israel is not antisemitic and further emphasized that she supports a ceasefire.
“I’m the only Palestinian-American serving in Congress,” she said. “My perspective is needed here now more than ever. My criticism has always been of the Israeli government and [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s actions. It is important to separate people and governments. The idea that criticizing the government of Israel is antisemitic sets a very dangerous precedent.”
McCormick disagreed.
“If this is not worthy of censure, what is?,” he asked. “When you can call for the annihilation of a country and its people, if that’s not worthy of a censure, what is?”.
Missouri’s Democrat Representatives Emanuel Cleaver and Cori Bush, as well as Kansas Rep. Sharice Davids (whose district includes the majority of the Jewish population of Kansas), voted against the censure.
–Alan Goforth | Metro Voice
