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Clips of Ilhan Omar defending Rashida Tlaib during a vote on whether to censure the Democrat for her comments about Israel have gone viral, accruing a million views.
The House of Representatives on Tuesday voted to censure the Democratic representative of Michigan and the only Palestinian American in Congress by 234 votes to 188 over what she said about the Israel-Hamas war. Tlaib sparked criticism last week by defending the controversial slogan "from the river to the sea" and urged lawmakers to join in calls for a cease-fire in Gaza.
The phrase is contentious, with the Anti-Defamation League saying it implies "the dismantling of the Jewish state." But Tlaib calls the chant an "aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence, not death, destruction, or hate."
"I will not be silenced and I will not let you distort my words," Tlaib said in the House. "No government is beyond criticism. The idea that criticizing the government of Israel is antisemitic sets a very dangerous precedent, and it's been used to silence diverse voices speaking up for human rights across our nation."
She also said she had condemned the Hamas attacks on Israeli citizens several times and she has in the past called the war a "genocide".
Nearly two dozen Democrats joined Republicans in the vote to censure Tlaib over her comments. But speaking during the debate, Omar, a Minnesota representative, defended her colleague and said Tlaib "will stand strong."
She said: "It is glaring hypocrisy when you have Republicans on the other side of the aisle trying to create definitions and saying 'Rashida wants to annihilate people' when Max Miller himself went on TV and said 'we're turning Gaza into a parking lot and we want to annihilate Palestinians.'"
Miller, an Ohio representative and former aide to Donald Trump, said the Palestinian territory will "probably get eviscerated and go away here slowly because we're going to turn that into a parking lot" in an interview with Fox News in October.
Omar continued: "Nobody condemned him on that side of the aisle. What is true here is that every single one of them [Republicans] has not acknowledged the fact that Palestinians are dying in their tens of thousands but will continue to say it is us who are not acknowledging humanity."
"Rashida will stand strong and the Palestinian movement will continue for liberation until every single Palestinian has the right to live in liberty," she said.
Clips of Omar's speech have been posted on X and accrued 1 million views collectively.
On October 7, Hamas launched a huge surprise attack on southern Israel from the Gaza Strip. Israel subsequently declared war on Hamas, carrying out extensive airstrikes and a ground offensive, while also cutting off supplies of water, food and electricity.
More than 10,000 people have died in Gaza since the war started, many more have been injured and huge numbers of people have been displaced, the Associated Press reported. The attacks on Israel killed more than 1,400 people and Hamas took more than 240 hostages.
The censuring in the U.S. follows an earlier attempt by Marjorie Taylor-Greene to censure Tlaib on November 1 over Israel comments. But with 13 Democrats abstaining and 23 Republicans voting to kill the motion, it wasn't passed, with the final tally 222 to 186.
Four Republicans voted against the new measure to censure Tlaib, including Representative Ken Buck.
Newsweek approached the offices of Tlaib, Omar and Miller via email for comment.
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About the writer
Kate Plummer is a Newsweek reporter based in London, U.K. Her focus is on U.S. politics and national affairs, and ... Read more