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‘The Nakba never ended:’ Bernie Sanders saves Rashida Tlaib’s anti-Israel event

The event commemorating the “catastrophe” of Israel’s founding came as Palestinian terrorists fired hundreds of rockets on civilians.

By World Israel News Staff

US Sen. Bernie Sanders (Independent-Vermont) on Wednesday redeemed a nixed Palestinian “Nakba Day” event organized by Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Michigan) that was initially slated to take place at the U.S. Capitol.

Sanders allowed Tlaib to hold the event, which took place as Palestinian terrorists fired hundreds of rockets at civilian populations in Israel, in room belonging to the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, a congressional committee he chairs.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Tuesday canceled the original event, which was supposed to be held at a 400-person auditorium at the Capitol Building and would commemorate the Nakba — Arabic for “catastrophe” — which condemns the founding of the Jewish state.

McCarthy said that instead, he would host a bipartisan discussion on Israel-U.S. ties to mark 75 years since Israel’s founding.

The event, titled “Nakba 75 & The Palestinian People,” was planned in collaboration with several organizations that support the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement against Israel, including Jewish Voice for Peace as well as NGOs that have expressed support for terrorism.

Tlaib thanked Sanders for his help to restore the event, calling him her “aamu,” Arabic for uncle, in the Senate.

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“We have a right to tell our stories of the Nakba of 1948… because the Nakba never ended,” Tlaib said, according to The Jewish Insider .

“No child should ever have to worry what will fall from the sky,” Tlaib said.

She charged Israeli police with enacting a “sustained campaign of terror,” and said that Israel is an apartheid state and that U.S. aid supports ethnic cleansing.

Rep. Cori Bush (D-Missouri), a fellow “Squad” member who attended the event, tweeted earlier this week: “Not a single dollar of US aid should go to funding Israeli apartheid.”

Tlaib tweeted photos from the event with the caption: “Let the headlines read, ‘McCarthy tries to erase Palestine but fails.’”

 

Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement: “It is disgraceful that Sen. Sanders allowed this event by Rep. Rashida to be held in our nation’s Capitol. Real conversations are needed around a path to peace, but not with groups & individuals who espouse antisemitism. We call on the Senate to condemn this event.”

The event, which billed itself as an opportunity to “educate members of Congress and their staff about this history and the ongoing Nakba to which Israel continues to subject Palestinians,” was full of lies. Even the invitation said the IDF “violently expelled approximately three-quarters of all Palestinians.”

Tlaib, the daughter of Palestinian immigrants, routinely refers to Israel as an apartheid state and has made statements that perpetuate the antisemitic stereotype of Jews controlling the world.

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Last week, Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan said Tlaib’s “ignorance and hate toward Jews and Israel know no bounds” after she posted a tweet about the Nakba, calling Israel an “apartheid state” that “was born out of violence and the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians”.

“Tlaib’s ignorance and hate toward Jews and Israel know no bounds. The facts are clear: the Arabs rejected the U.N.’s resolution to establish a Jewish state and started a war to annihilate it,” wrote Erdan, referencing the fact that in 1948, five Arab armies attacked the nascent state, with full support from the Palestinian leadership.

“Palestinian leadership is leading its people to catastrophe by inciting hate/terror and rejecting peace,” Erdan wrote.