Tlaib has been an outspoken opponent of the Israeli government’s treatment of Palestinians and has previously demanded that Washington stop providing Israel with help, including the $3.8 billion in military funding that the country receives each year. [File: Getty Images / Celal Gunes/Anadolu]
Rashida Tlaib, the only American congressman of Palestinian descent, was voted out of office by the US House of Representatives on Tuesday over her remarks regarding the Israel-Hamas conflict.
About 22 members of her Democratic party supported the resolution, which said Tlaib had been “promoting false narratives” about the October 7 Hamas attack inside Israel that resulted in the deaths of over 1,400 people. In addition, she was charged with wanting the “destruction of Israel,” a claim she denied.
In light of this, what is Rashida Tlaib’s identity, why was she “censured,” and what transpired at the heated meeting that resulted in the resolution being passed against her?
Tlaib was criticized; why?
The Democratic congresswoman’s backing of the pro-Palestine slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” has come under fire from Israel and its allies in the West. This is what led to the unusual vote.
“The statement read, “It is universally accepted as a call to violence intended to destroy the state of Israel and its people in order to commit genocide.
Claiming that the slogan is a “aspirational call for freedom… and peaceful existence and not death, destruction, and hate,” Tlaib has defended it.
She and her progressive House colleagues continued to demand for a ceasefire during the discussion, citing the nearly 10,000 Palestinians murdered by the Israeli military operation in just one month—many of them were children.
“People from Palestine are not expendable,” an impassioned Tlaib said.
However, the lawmakers who proposed the resolution drew attention to her usage of the word “resistance” following the Hamas attack. “Suffocating, dehumanizing conditions” in the Palestinian territory, she had claimed, may “lead to resistance.”
The vote against Tlaib on Tuesday coincides with the use of provocative language by the US right-wing, especially Congressmen, against Palestinians in the wake of the Hamas attack. Representative Max Miller demanded that the laws of war be disregarded as Israel began its bombardment on Gaza on October 7, while Senator Lindsey Graham suggested that Gaza be “flattened.”
Who is Rashida Tlaib?
Representing Michigan’s 12th congressional district, the 47-year-old Democrat politician and attorney has been in Congress for three terms.
She is one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress, together with Ilhan Oman, and the first woman of Palestinian heritage in the House.
Tlaib and Omar are part of “The Squad,” a loose coalition of Democratic congressmen that also includes Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez.
She was born in Detroit to Palestinian immigrants who were working class, and she still has relatives in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
What does receiving a censure entail?
A censure resolution is a severe, official public reprimand that is one step below expulsion and is considered a last resort. It can be passed against a member of Congress. However, it has recently been applied more frequently and partisanly.
Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene filed a resolution last week accusing Tlaib of “leading an insurrection” on Capitol Hill after she spoke at a pro-Palestinian demonstration, but Tlaib managed to avoid being censured.
The 47-year-old legislator was the second member of the body to face censure this year, following Democratic Party member Adam Schiff, who in June faced a resolution against him due to Republican complaints regarding his management of the Trump-Russia probe.
In the past, a rebuke is an uncommon a rare action, considering that in the entire history of Congress, only 25 members have been censured prior to Tlaib.
A lawmaker who had insulted the speaker during a floor argument received the first censure in 1832.
Republicans who supported a resolution to remove Ilhan Omar from the House Foreign Affairs Committee for her criticism of Israel in February also formally reprimanded her, though they did not condemn her.
The differences in politics
Tlaib’s vote was opposed by a sizable number of Democrats and supported by a small number of Republicans, indicating differences in opinion on the touchy subject.
22 House Democrats, including Jim Costa of California and four lawmakers from Florida, voted in favor of censure Tlaib in the end, with a vote of 234 to 188. One Republican, three Democrats, and one present voted. Four Republicans abstained from voting on the resolution, mostly citing concerns about free speech.
Bradley Schneider, a Jewish Democrat who voted against Tlaib, stated that while he acknowledges Tlaib’s right to free speech and believes censure to be flawed, “it is the only vehicle available to formally rebuke the dangerous disinformation and aspersions” that Tlaib utilizes.
Tlaib’s defender, Democrat Jamie Raskin, claimed the resolution “cheapens the meaning of discipline in this body for people who actually commit wrongful actions like bribery, fraud, violent assault and so on” and undermines the US Constitution.
Tlaib defended herself by stating that she “will not be silenced and I will not let you distort my words” in an address for the representatives.
She added that rather than targeting Jews, her criticism has always been leveled at the Israeli government and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s leadership.
The notion that voicing criticism towards the Israeli government is anti-Semitic creates a grave risk. Additionally, it has been employed nationwide to stifle different voices that defend human rights, the speaker claimed.