Tlaib labels Israel an 'apartheid state' in impassioned floor speech
Category: News & Politics
Via: vic-eldred • 2 years ago • 21 commentsBy: Nick Robertson (The Hill)


Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) harshly denounced a House resolution supporting Israel in a floor speech on Tuesday, the day before Israeli President Isaac Herzog will address a joint meeting of Congress.
"Israel is an apartheid state. To assert otherwise, Mr. Speaker, in the face of this body of evidence, is an attempt to deny the reality and an attempt to normalize violence of apartheid," Tlaib said.
"Don't forget: This body, this Congress, supported the South African apartheid regime, and it was bipartisan as well," she added.
Tlaib, who is of Palestinian heritage, is one of a slate of progressive members of Congress who plan to skip Herzog's speech to Congress on Wednesday out of protest against the Israeli government.
The protests come as violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank has increased in recent months, and the Israeli government faces internal strife over attempted judicial reforms.
Tlaib pointed out that the United Nations as well as advocacy groups Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and B'tselem have labeled Israel an apartheid state.
The resolution supporting Israel passed overwhelmingly, with nine members of Congress — mostly Democratic members of the progressive "Squad" — voting against. It specifically states that Israel is "not a racist or apartheid state."
On Saturday, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) said Israel is a "racist state," vowing to vote against the resolution and skip Herzog's speech.
Those comments sparked calls for action from Republicans who believed the remarks were antisemitic.
Democrats have dismissed the outrage as a political squabble, but it has caused some rifts within the party.
"There is a difference between criticizing the right of Israel to exist, which is beyond the pale, and criticizing the conduct of the Israeli government, which I think is horrible," Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), who is Jewish, said Tuesday.
Herzog met with President Biden on Tuesday.
Tags Isaac Herzog Israel israel apartheid Jerry Nadler Joe Biden joint meeting of congress palestine Pramila Jayapal Rashida Tlaib

The resolution supporting Israel passed overwhelmingly, with nine members of Congress — mostly Democratic members of the progressive "Squad" — voting against. It specifically states that Israel is "not a racist or apartheid state."
Thus the hill to die on. There stands the 9 anti-Semitic democrats!
:Poor thing................NOT
Joe Biden has yet to condemn it.
He never goes against the radical left. He is just a tool for them.
Did Tlalib deny Israel's right to exist? That is not in the story.
I think if someone says "Israel is an apartheid state" I think generally speaking they are referring to current conditions and not what could be or should be in the past or future.
For many months now hundreds of thousands of Israelis have been protesting in the streets against their own far right government. Yet I havent seen a single word from the American conservatives in support of these protests. Maybe supporting the Israeli protesters is the proper "hill to die on".
That is very generous of you considering the one who said it is a rabid anti-Semite. She is also a Palestinian and they did deny Israel's right to exist.
BTW, a good deal of the democrat (it is not democratic - it is totalitarian in nature) party, beginning with Jimmy Carter, is pro-Palestinian!
You dont get to rename the Democratic Party. Unless maybe we should rename the other one to the Repooplicans.
The term democratic carries another meaning beyond a party label....A meaning which is the opposite of what the dems stand for.
Most , if not almost all, Republican politicians and media people call the Democratic Party the "Democrat Party''. I guess those conservative politicians enjoy looking stupid.
I thought you believed in political correctness?
a true oxymoron.
That is a nice way to spin it but I am not sure you can say with any accuracy what "someone" "generally " means. I think you have to look at the person saying it and then decide what they mean, assuming their words were not clear enough for you to determine that.
Do you have evidence of Talib saying that Israel has no right to exist? Lacking that, we can assume she is talking about a current situation.
I don't follow what she says so I don't know if she has or not. If she doesn't want her words to be misinterpreted maybe she could clarify her position on their right to exist when she makes statement that can fuel people against her. We can assume whatever we want but that still does not make it correct. We can assume she is talking about a current situation and we can assume she does not make her position on right to exist clear because her position would cause more problems than just being vague.
She is a rotten, angry human being.
Here she is spazing out over Trump in 2016
It seems that way, I find very little good about her. But she was voted in so I guess it is what it is, for now. I see she is Pro Palestine, I would expect that. It seems she is against Israel's policies with regards to Palestine. Again, IMO that is fine. What I am not sure of is would she like Israel to disappear, would she be OK with violence against them to try and fix her perceived problem? To my knowledge she seems to stay away from clarifying her position which makes her feelings about it more than a little suspicions.
In the mean time I have no use for her or her squad. Nancy should have told them to STFU a few years ago.
Did I make that claim, John?
However she has made comments such as this:
“There’s kind of a calming feeling I always tell folks when I think of the Holocaust, and the tragedy of the Holocaust, and the fact that it was my ancestors, Palestinians, who lost their land and some lost their lives, their livelihood, their human dignity, their existence in many ways, have been wiped out, and some people’s passports,” Tlaib said.
She is an anti-Semite John. Admit it!
Her district is Dearborn, the largest Muslim population per capita in the USA last I checked.
So there you go ……
Another anti-Semite in the Democrat Party. Sadly the Democrats are good with them.
The pride of southern Michigan speaks……
Rashida Tlaib is a state sponsor of terrorism. But there's nothing that can be done about that. Which explains why the US lost Afghanistan.