8 November 2023 — 0857 mst
A disgraceful moment in the U.S. House of Representatives
By James Conner
Last night, the U.S. House censured Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI 12) for uttering the slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” According to the New York Times, the censure resolution:
… cited Ms. Tlaib’s embrace of the phrase “from the river to the sea,” a pro-Palestinian rallying cry that many regard as calling for the eradication of Israel and has been deemed antisemitic by the Anti-Defamation League. The resolution called the phrase “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.”
Ms. Tlaib has said the slogan, which was used by pro-Palestinian protesters featured in a video she posted accusing President Biden of supporting genocide in Gaza, is “an aspirational call for freedom, human rights and peaceful coexistence, not death, destruction or hate.”
I consider the slogan a rallying cry for Hamas’ goal of eradicating the state of Israel and killing all Jews. Tlaib’s defense of her use of it doesn’t pass the duck test.
Censure, a sanction properly reserved for serious misconduct detrimental to the functioning of the House, punished her for the content of her speech — for speaking her mind, for exercising her First Amendment rights. That’s wrong. A better approach? A resolution condemning the slogan.
So why censure? Most likely, to curry favor with Jewish voters.
Tlaib, the daughter of Palestinian immigrants, is a natural born American citizen, constitutionally qualified to be President. She earned a degree in law.
I hope there comes a day when Tlaib recognizes her embrace of the slogan embraced the raison d’etre for Hamas, and apologizes for using it. I hope, too, there comes a day when the House rescinds her censure and apologizes for its misapplication of the sanction.