The House voted on Tuesday to censure Democrat Representative Rashida Tlaib for “promoting false narratives” surrounding Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel and “calling for the destruction of the state of Israel.”
“I’m the only Palestinian-American serving in Congress,” Tlaib said on the House floor. “My perspective is needed here now more than ever.”
The motion, introduced by Representative Richard McCormick (R., Ga.), passed 234 to 188. Twenty-two Democrats voted in favor of censuring Tlaib, and four Republicans voted against. One Democrat and three Republicans abstained.
“Representative 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, be-headings, and kidnapping – including of Americans – by Hamas as justified ‘resistance’ to the ‘apartheid state,’” reads the resolution.
The motion further accuses Tlaib of advocating for the destruction of Israel.
“Representative 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 continues. “[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.”
In a speech on the House floor, Tlaib argued that criticizing Israel is not antisemitic, and further emphasized that she supports a cease-fire.
“My criticism has always been of the Israeli government and [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s actions. It is important to separate people and governments,” Tlaib said. She added, “The idea that criticizing the government of Israel is antisemitic sets a very dangerous precedent.”
Tlaib became emotional as she held a framed photo of her grandmother, who lives in the West Bank.
“Palestinian people are not disposable,” Tlaib continued. Representative Ilhan Omar stood up to comfort Tlaib.