On Tuesday night, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to censure Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., for rhetoric against Israel and its war with Hamas.
According to Fox News, 212 Republicans voted along with twenty-two Democrats to censure Tlaib. On the other hand, four GOP lawmakers voted against the measure while four lawmakers voted present.
Freshman Rep. Rich McCormick, R-Ga, introduced the measure on Monday. Although Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga, introduced a measure to censure Tlaib last week, it failed to advance to a vote.
"If this is not worthy of censure, what is? When you can call for the annihilation of a country and its people, if that’s not worthy of censure, what is?" McCormick said on the House floor Tuesday.
In the measure, McCormick argued that Tlaib was "promoting false narratives regarding the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and for calling for the destruction of the state of Israel."
Meanwhile, Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md, argued that the measure is about “the punishment of speech.”
Tlaib, the first Palestinian American in Congress, came under fire from both parties for sharing a video on X, formerly Twitter, that included the pro-Palestinian liberation slogan, "From the river to the sea.”
The phrase, which Hamas also uses, suggests calls for the destruction of Israel.
"It is fundamentally a call for a Palestinian state extending from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, territory that includes the State of Israel, which would mean the dismantling of the Jewish state," the Anti-Defamation League’s website explained. "It is an antisemitic charge denying the Jewish right to self-determination, including through the removal of Jews from their ancestral homeland."
In response, Tlaib maintained her stance on the slogan.
"It is important to separate people and governments," she said on the House floor on Tuesday. "The idea that criticizing the Israeli government is antisemitic sets a dangerous precedent."
Photo Courtesy: ©Getty Images/Chip Somodevilla / Staff
Video Courtesy: Associated Press via YouTube
Milton Quintanilla is a freelance writer and content creator. He is a contributing writer for CrosswalkHeadlines and the host of the For Your Soul Podcast, a podcast devoted to sound doctrine and biblical truth. He holds a Masters of Divinity from Alliance Theological Seminary.
