House censures Rashida Tlaib for calling for Israel’s destruction

House of Representatives censures Rashida Tlaib for ‘From the river to the sea’ chant and false claims against Israel.

By World News Israel Staff

By a vote of 234 to 188 in favor, the U.S. House of Representatives voted Tuesday to censure Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) for a chant calling for Israel’s destruction.

Twenty-two Democrats joined 211 Republicans in the censure with four Republicans opposing the motion, and three Democrats and four Republicans abstaining from the vote. 

The motion, brought by Republican Representative Richard McCormick from Georgia, was brought on the charges that Tlaib was “promoting false narratives” and “called for the destruction of the State of Israel. 

Tlaib along with the “Squad” of progressive representatives including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar have voiced harsh criticism of the State of Israel. 

Tlaib’s remarks that prompted the censure include a video the congresswoman accusing President Joe Biden of supporting “the genocide of the Palestinian People” and including the chant, “From the River to the Sea,” which ostensibly is a Palestinian liberation slogan, but would, if implemented, destroy the State of Israel. 

In addition, Tlaib accused the IDF of bombing a hospital and refused to retract her statement after the radical group Islamic Jihad was proven responsible for the explosion. Shortly after the October 7th massacre that claimed the lives of 1,400 people in Israel, Tlaib decried Israel as an “apartheid government.” 

The approval of the censure comes just a week after a similar proposal was voted down. Although censures are relatively rare and have no disciplinary consequences, they are used as a measure to publicly rebuke public officials. 

In response, Rashida Tlaib posted on X: “I am the only Palestinian serving in Congress and my perspective is needed here now more than ever. I will not be silenced. I will not let anyone distort my words.”