House Votes to Advance Resolution to Censure Rashida Tlaib for Antisemitic Rhetoric
Arjun Singh /
The House of Representatives declined to table a resolution that would censure Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan for her pro-Gaza advocacy and criticism of Israel, which many have accused of being antisemitic, in a vote on Tuesday.
Tlaib has been criticized for her rhetoric on the dispute between Israel and Hamas following the latter’s terrorist attacks on Oct. 7. By a vote of 213 nays to 208 yeas, with one member voting present, the House declined to table a resolution that would censure Tlaib for her rhetoric, enabling it to advance to a final vote on Wednesday.
“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, beheadings, and kidnapping—including of Americans—by Hamas as justified ‘resistance’ to the ‘apartheid state,’” the resolution, which was introduced as a question of privilege by Republican Rep. Rich McCormick of Georgia, reads.
The resolution also states her use of the phrase “from the river to the sea” as cause for censure, with the phrase being interpreted as calling for the end of the state of Israel, whose territory runs from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea and is claimed as Palestinian by activists.
Six Republicans voted to table the resolution.
“We must do the right thing and hold those in the people’s house to account,” McCormick wrote on Twitter, now known as X. “This is because of her inaccurate statements and inflammatory rhetoric that have literally said a nation, a strong ally of ours, Israel, should not exist.”
McCormick’s resolution is one of two privileged resolutions that have been offered to censure Tlaib. The other, introduced by Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, was initially tabled by the House on Nov. 1.
In a statement responding to the effort, Tlaib wrote on Twitter that “[i]t is a shame that my colleagues are focused on silencing me than they are on saving lives, as the death toll in Gaza surpasses 10,000.”
Tlaib also called for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, a position that has been rejected by both elected Democrats and Republicans, including President Joe Biden.
A vote on McCormick’s resolution to censure Tlaib is likely to garner Republican support, though it will require the support of all but three Republican representatives in order to pass, assuming full attendance of the vote on Wednesday. In the 118th Congress, the House has so far censured only one member, Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff of California, for his actions in previous Congresses regarding investigations into then-President Donald Trump.
Originally published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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