The House passed a GOP-led resolution on Tuesday to censure Rep. Rashida Tlaib over comments critical of Israel and in support of Palestinians amid Israel’s war against Hamas.
The move amounts to a rare and significant rebuke of the Michigan Democrat, who is the first Palestinian-American woman to serve in Congress. The vote was 234 to 188 with four Republicans voting against and 22 Democrats voting in support of the censure resolution.
The resolution, which was introduced by Georgia GOP Rep. Rich McCormick, advanced earlier in the day after a Democratic-led effort to block the measure failed.
Hamas used the phrase. There’s a clear association, and it’s because of a concerted effort to make Palestinian freedom sound extremist. Have violent radicals adopt a normal phrase, it gets associated with them.
It was wrong to censure her, but she really shouldn’t have used the phrase. I’m sure she genuinely meant it in a free, peaceful sense, but there shouldn’t be any room for ambiguity – if people say it’s an antisemitic phrase, then don’t use it!
If we want criticism of Israel to be separate from antisemitism, you have to take a strict no tolerance policy on anything which could possibly be related to it, even an association like this. Criticizing Israel using phrases the opposition considers to be antisemitic is absolutely counterproductive for separating your criticism from antisemitism.