On November 7, the United States House of Representatives voted to censure representative Rashida Tlaib, the only Congress member of Palestinian descent, for “promoting false narratives regarding the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and for calling for the destruction of the state of Israel.”
The measure argues that Tlaib’s statement shortly after the inauguration of the “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation, in which she called for and end to “the apartheid system that creates the suffocating, dehumanizing conditions that can lead to resistance,” constituted a defense of Hamas’ “brutal rapes, murders, be-headings, and kidnapping.”
Most House Republicans and 22 Democrats voted in favor of the resolution to censure Tlaib, which was introduced by Republican representative Rich McCormick. Many of the 22 Democrats who voted in favor have each taken extensive donations from the pro-Israel lobby.
The censure of Tlaib has been met with public outcry by the Palestine solidarity movement, as well as progressive members of the House, who rushed to her support. “It’s outrageous that my colleagues are blatantly, blatantly attempting to silence the only Palestinian-American representative right here,” said lawmaker Cori Bush on the House floor.
The resolution also cited Tlaib’s publication of a video containing chants of the popular Palestine solidarity slogan “from the river to the sea” 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.”
Tlaib has said that the slogan is “an aspirational call for freedom, human rights and peaceful coexistence, not death, destruction or hate.”
A censure is essentially a form of public humiliation, in which the Speaker of the House reads out a rebuke of a specific lawmaker. Censures are rare, with only 26 used in the entire history of the United States, primarily occurring in the 19th century. Recently, however, the use of this measure has escalated, especially following the chaotic selection of the new Speaker of the House.
“I can’t believe I have to say this, but Palestinian people are not disposable,” said Tlaib during the debate on the resolution to censure her. “The cries of the Palestinian and Israeli children sound no different to me.”
Congressional staffers have been organizing actions in protest of their lawmaker bosses’ inaction regarding the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza. On November 8, more than 100 staffers walked out of Capitol Hill, laying thousands of flowers in honor of those killed.
