Rashida Tlaib, facing censure, gives emotional defense of call for Israeli cease-fire

In a passionate speech Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Detroit, confronted with the likelihood she will become the 26th member of the U.S. House to be censured in its history, defended her criticism of Israel and demand for a cease-fire in Gaza, asking her opponents, "Why do the cries of Palestinian children sound differently to you?"

Facing a censure motion motivated in large part by her defense of a phrase, "from the river to the sea," widely seen as antisemitic, Tlaib, Congress' only Palestinian-American member, said more than 10,000 people, mostly children, have died in Gaza as Israel has responded with rocket attacks and a ground invasion to a brutal surprise attack by Hamas a month ago that killed some 1,400 Israelis. Tlaib has denounced both Hamas and Israel and called for a Biden administration-brokered cease-fire to protect civilians.

Tlaib has said the phrase, which has been used by Hamas and other groups as a call for the eradication of Israel, has a different meaning to her as an aspirational message of peaceful coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians. But many others, including many of her own Democratic colleagues, denounced her use and defense of the phrase, which refers to the creation of a Palestinian state between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, encompassing all of Israel.

Saying "the cries of the Palestinian and Israeli children sound the same to me," Tlaib said she would not be silenced and that the movement calling for a cease-fire will only grow.

"Do you realize what it’s like for the people outside our chamber listening to our own government dehumanize them?" she said, becoming emotional as she clutched a photo of her sity, or grandmother, who lives in the occupied West Bank and wearing a black-and-white kaffiyeh. "I can’t believe I have to say this but Palestinian people are not disposable. We are human beings just like anyone else."

Her colleague, U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., gently laid her hand on Tlaib's shoulder and back to steady her.

U.S. Rep. Rich McCormick, R-Ga., on Monday filed the privileged resolution to censure Tlaib for the remark and her initial response to the Hamas attacks of Oct. 7, in which she laid at least partial blame on a longstanding Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip — which is controlled by Hamas — and the economic and societal hardships it has created.

Rights groups have widely criticized the blockade, saying Israel's actions violate human rights standards, as does Israel's allowing settlers to continue to take more territory in the West Bank. But western governments, including the U.S. and President Joe Biden, have reaffirmed their support for Israel and its right to defend itself.

Unlike last week, when Tlaib saw a separate censure motion introduced by U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green, R-Ga., killed as Democrats and 23 Republicans joined hands to block it, a motion to table McCormick's failed, with only six Republicans — and no GOP members of Michigan's House delegation — supporting it. While most Democrats, including all of Michigan's members, voted to table, eight other Democratic U.S. House members did not vote and one voted present.

The motion to table failed 208-213-1, setting up a vote on the censure itself Wednesday. While there is no specific punishment, censure means the member must stand before the House silently while the resolution is read aloud.

McCormick's resolution begins: "Censuring Representative Rashida Tlaib for promoting false narratives regarding the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and for calling for the destruction of the state of Israel."

More: Rashida Tlaib's defense of pro-Palestinian phrase leads to sharp rebukes by Democrats

The failure of the motion to table makes it far more likely that the censure vote will succeed. U.S. Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Tipton, voted to block last week's censure, citing Tlaib's free speech rights, but said her defense of the phrase —especially after it was shown in a video she participated in shortly after another slogan, "no peace on stolen land," seemed to him to try to justify violence.

"While I will continue to defend First Amendment liberties for those I disagree with, I will not support the right to call for a violent genocide," Walberg said.

A Marine veteran, McCormick said that Tlaib's defense that "from the river to the sea" could be taken as a call for peaceful coexistence was a falsehood, given that organizations including the Anti-Defamation League have called its use antisemitic. "This is a call for complete destruction," he said. "It's disgusting when it's used in the context for which it is meant. ... This kind of hatred against our ally, Israel, is unacceptable."

Noting an increase in antisemitic attacks following the breakout of the war, McCormick also said Tlaib's remarks represent "an internal rot promoting the same senseless violence."

The phrase became a point of contention when crowds in Michigan were shown chanting it in a video message released last week by a worker-owned, anti-capitalist streaming service called Means TV, which also featured Tlaib calling on Biden to insist on a cease-fire.

Tlaib did not say the phrase herself but later defended it on social media, leading to the intense criticism brought against her. On the House floor on Tuesday, Tlaib and her supporters argued that she has never called for Israel's destruction or defended the atrocities committed by Hamas. Tlaib said the call for a cease-fire is fueled by people "who don't believe the answer to war crimes is more war crimes."

Tlaib also said: "Folks forget I'm from the city of Detroit, the most beautiful, blackest city in the country, where I learned to speak truth to power, even if my voice shakes. Trying to bully or censure me won't work."

"She does not want to kill Jews, she is not in support of Hamas," said U.S. Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y. "Without her voice, we would lack even more empathy for the people of Palestine."

Omar also noted that a Republican colleague, U.S. Rep. Max Miller, R-Ohio, made a remark about Israeli forces turning Gaza "into a parking lot" but didn't face any censure vote, in what she called "glaring hypocrisy."

Miller spoke on the floor in favor of the censure resolution, reiterating his belief that the phrase is without question a call for exterminating the Jewish people. U.S. Rep. Jack Bergman, R-Watersmeet, who had earlier said he would propose a censure resolution of his own, also spoke in favor of Tlaib's censure, saying, "I take no joy standing here ... but Congresswoman Tlaib's words are abhorrent and below her office."

Democrats argued that, even if they disagreed with Tlaib's comments, they were protected by her First Amendment right to free speech.

"My Republican colleagues go on and on about trying to cancel someone and here they are trying to cancel someone," said Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass. "You’re setting an awful precedent for this institution."

Contact Todd Spangler: tspangler@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @tsspangler.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Rashida Tlaib gives emotional speech ahead of likely censure