To donate by check, phone, or other method, see our More Ways to Give page.

×
  • Home
  • Politics
  • Climate
  • Economy
  • Rights & Justice
  • War & Peace
  • Breaking News
  • Opinion
  • News
  • Newswire
  • Further
  • Planned Parenthood Action Fund
  • Trade Justice Education Fund
  • Profile Organization Test
  • ProsperUS
  • Repairers of the Breach
  • Fix Our Senate
  • ACLU Florida
  • Alliance for Retired Americans
  • Concerted Action
  • Green New Deal Network
  • Costs of War
  • Fossil Free Media
  • Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights
  • Independent Jewish Voices Canada
  • Cascadia Wildlands
  • Congressman Jamaal Bowman
  • Environmental Defense
  • National Coalition for the Homeless
  • Riverkeeper
  • U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines
  • Free Gaza Movement
  • Friends of the Earth Europe
  • Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
  • Basel Action Network
  • Healthy California Now
  • Groundwork Collaborative
  • One Fair Wage
  • Progressive International
  • Data for Progress
  • Congressman Ro Khanna
  • Fight Corporate Monopolies
  • Mijente
  • Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal
  • Oxfam America
  • Repair Our Democracy
  • Farm Action
  • Accountable.Senate
  • The Sentencing Project
  • Hunger Free America
  • Fridays for Future
  • Family Farm Action
  • National Family Farm Coalition
  • Protect the Results
  • AFSCME
  • Color Of Change PAC
  • MPower Change
  • Western Watersheds Project
  • WildEarth Guardians
  • The Elders
  • Gwich'in Steering Committee
  • Stop the Money Pipeline
  • United Nations Human Rights - Special Procedures
  • Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO)
  • Communications Workers of America
  • The Endangered Species Coalition
  • Center for Climate Integrity
  • Climate Power
  • NORML
  • Lower Drug Prices Now
  • National Education Association (NEA)
  • Democracy Initiative
  • Small Business for Paid Leave
  • Campaign Legal Center
  • Muslim Advocates
  • Congresswoman Ilhan Omar
  • Accountable.US
  • Climate Mobilization
  • GLAD
  • Out & Equal
  • American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
  • The Sunrise Project
  • American Economic Liberties Project
  • Bend the Arc
  • Poor People's Campaign
  • Jewish Voice for Peace Action
  • The Revolving Door Project
  • Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
  • TIME'S UP Now
  • Oil Change U.S.
  • Vote Climate U.S. PAC
  • Community Change Action
  • Democracy 21
  • Environmental Justice Foundation
  • Center for Popular Democracy Action
  • Climate Justice Alliance
  • Free Press Action
  • International Rivers
  • JVP Action
  • Open Markets Institute
  • Center for Popular Democracy
  • Stand Up America
  • Demand Justice
  • Stand.earth
  • By the People
  • The Sanders Institute
  • Tax March
  • Friends of the Earth Scotland
  • Justice Democrats
  • Sunrise Movement
  • Western Values Project
  • Good Jobs First
  • Climate Works for All
  • Democratic Socialists of America
  • Freedom From Facebook & Google
  • National Center for Transgender Equality
  • As You Sow
  • Rootstrikers
  • Every Voice
  • Direct Action Everywhere
  • Earthworks
  • Global Witness
  • National Abortion Federation
  • Representative Keith Ellison
  • Transgender Law Center (TLC)
  • Sea Shepherd
  • American Promise
  • Americans For Tax Fairness Action Fund
  • Biofuelwatch
  • Grassroots International
  • Climate Justice Programme
  • End Rape On Campus (EROC)
  • Stop the Wall
  • Organization for Competitive Markets
  • Balestra Media
  • Pacifica Foundation
  • The LGBT Network
  • Compassion in World Farming
  • UNHCR
  • Community Alliance for Global Justice
  • Elders Rising
  • Moms Demand Action For Gun Sense in America
  • The Right Livelihood Award
  • Women's Earth & Climate Action Network (WECAN)
  • The International Rescue Committee
  • Women Cross DMZ
  • Acadia Center
  • American Sustainable Business Council (ASBC)
  • The New York Immigration Coalition
  • GAIA
  • The Culinary Union
  • The American Immigration Council
  • Citizens Against Monopoly
  • Our Revolution
  • United We Dream
  • National Women's Law Center
  • SumofUs
  • Global Zero
  • The Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC)
  • NAACP Legal Defense Fund
  • Network Lobby
  • NIAC Action
  • Asian Americans Advancing Justice
  • Freedom of the Press Foundation
  • Progressive Congress Action Fund
  • The Main Street Alliance
  • Millions Marching For Medicare For All
  • The World Health Organization
  • Senator Elizabeth Warren
  • Rep. Barbara Lee
  • John Conyers, Jr., Congressman
  • The Commonwealth Fund
  • Social Security Works
  • Mercy for Animals
  • American Federation of Teachers
  • Climate Disobedience Center
  • Nuclear Age Peace Foundation
  • Open Media
  • Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
  • Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund
  • Bold Alliance
  • The Greenlining Institute
  • Physicians for Reproductive Health
  • Americans for Tax Fairness
  • Climate Action Tracker
  • American Federation of Government Employees
  • Patriotic Millionaires
  • Congresswoman Barbara Lee
  • Progressive Change Campaign Committee
  • Indivisible
  • Friends of the Earth Action
  • Stop the War Coalition
  • Earthrights International
  • Free Speech for People
  • National Employment Law Project
  • Navdanya International
  • Open Debate Coalition
  • Shut It Down - Climate Direct Action
  • SOA Watch
  • Grassroots Global Justice Alliance
  • Green Party of the US
  • Live Share Grow
  • Advancement Project
  • Chicago Teachers Union
  • Indigenous Environmental Network
  • Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency (FACT) Coalition
  • Coalition to Stop Gun Violence
  • The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
  • Stop Mass Incarceration Network - Chicago
  • International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN)
  • Progress Michigan
  • 350 Action
  • Climate Action Network International
  • Climate Tracker
  • Regeneration International
  • Ecojustice
  • Together for Global Justice (CIDSE)
  • Carbon Underground
  • Fight for $15
  • sHELLNO
  • Pembina Institute
  • Global Justice Now
  • Grassroots Leadership
  • La Via Campesina
  • New York Civil Liberties Union
  • Privacy International
  • National Iranian American Council (NIAC)
  • Restaurant Opportunities Centers United
  • U.S. Right to Know
  • Share the World's Resources
  • National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health
  • Don't Shoot Coalition
  • Fight for the Future
  • Environmental Action
  • Oceana
  • UltraViolet
  • Huu-ay-aht First Nations
  • Latino Advocacy
  • Western Environmental Law Center
  • Rolling Jubilee
  • Coalition for Peace Action
  • Rodale Institute
  • Food Research and Action Center
  • Reject and Protect
  • The Upstate Coalition to Ground the Drones and End the Wars
  • Center for Reproductive Rights
  • People's Action
  • Iraq Veterans Against the War
  • Jewish Voice for Peace
  • US Robin Hood Tax Campaign
  • Chesapeake Climate Action Network
  • Council of Canadians
  • Haiti: Make Births Safe
  • Center for Corporate Policy
  • Our Children's Trust
  • The Partnership for Civil Justice Fund
  • Friends of the Earth International
    Common Dreams. To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good.
    Common Dreams Globe
    LATEST NEWSOPINIONCLIMATEECONOMY POLITICS RIGHTS & JUSTICEWAR & PEACE
    LATEST NEWS
    OPINION
    Common DreamsTo inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good.

    jack bergman

    Rep. Rashida Tlaib speaks during a hearing

    'This Is an Attempt to Silence My Voice': Tlaib Condemns GOP Censure Motion

    "I'm the only Palestinian voice right now in Congress. If anything, my voice is needed here more than ever."

    Brett Wilkins
    Oct 12, 2023

    Facing attacks by fellow Democrats and a censure motion from a Republican congressman from her home state of Michigan, Rep. Rashida Tlaib on Wednesday accused her critics of intentionally misportraying her as a Hamas sympathizer due to her condemnation of Israeli war crimes in Palestine.

    Rep. Jack Bergman (R-Mich.)—whose third-biggest campaign contributor during the 2022 election cycle was the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)—on Wednesday introduced a motion to censure Tlaib, the only Palestinian American member of Congress, for what he called "her antisemitism and disgraceful response to the attacks on our ally, Israel."

    On Saturday, Hamas and other militants infiltrated Israel from Gaza in a wave of attacks that have since killed more than 1,300 Israeli soldiers and civilians, including many women and children. Israel responded by bombarding Gaza, targeting civilian infrastructure and killing over 1,400 Palestinians—including at least 447 children—while cutting off power and water and trapping 2.3 million people in the besieged enclave.

    "Much of what I'm hearing from Jack and a number of other colleagues is rooted in bigotry, that somehow because of my ethnicity and my faith that I support terrorism."

    On Sunday, Tlaib issued a statement mourning the "Palestinian and Israeli lives lost," while asserting that the path to a peaceful future must include lifting Israel's blockade of Gaza, ending its illegal occupation of Palestine, "and dismantling the apartheid system that creates the suffocating, dehumanizing conditions that can lead to resistance."

    Tlaib's statement also asserted that the "heartbreaking cycle of violence" would continue until the United States stopped giving "billions in unconditional funding" to support Israel's apartheid government.

    Citing unverified claims that Hamas "beheaded infants," Bergman's resolution—which was joined by Rep. Morgan Luttrell (R-Texas), another beneficiary of AIPAC's largesse—called Tlaib's statement "disturbing and evil."

    Responding to Bergman's motion, Tlaib told the Detroit Free Press on Wednesday that "I'm the only Palestinian voice right now in Congress. If anything, my voice is needed here more than ever."

    "This is an attempt to silence my voice because I want the violence to stop, no matter whether it's toward Israelis or toward Palestinians," she asserted. "Much of what I'm hearing from Jack and a number of other colleagues is rooted in bigotry, that somehow because of my ethnicity and my faith that I support terrorism."

    — (@)

    Tlaib and other "Squad" members including Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Cori Bush (D-Mo.)—who condemned the killing of civilians on both sides while urging an end to U.S. support for "Israeli military occupation and apartheid"—also faced harsh rebuke from fellow Democrats in the Biden administration and Congress.

    White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called their comments "disgraceful" and "repugnant," while pro-Israel congressional Democrats piled on the condemnation.

    "It sickens me that while Israelis clean the blood of their family members shot in their homes, they believe Congress should strip U.S. funding to our democratic ally and allow innocent civilians to suffer," Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) said of Tlaib and her Squad colleagues in a Tuesday interview with Jewish Insider.

    — (@)

    "U.S. aid to Israel is and should be unconditional, and never more so than in this moment of critical need," Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) told Jewish Insider. "Shame on anyone who glorifies as 'resistance' the largest single-day mass murder of Jews since the Holocaust. It is reprehensible and repulsive."

    AIPAC was by far Gottheimer's largest contributor in the 2022 electoral cycle, donating more than $216,000 to his campaign. The same goes for Torres, who received over $141,000 from the group during the same period.

    — (@)

    The Nation's John Nichols noted Thursday that Tlaib, Bush, and Omar are being condemned "for saying what prominent Israelis are saying."

    Nichols cited Israeli human rights lawyer and rules-of-war expert Michael Sfard, who said: "Hamas committed abominable war crimes for which there can be no forgiveness. But the laws of war weren't meant only for situations in which our blood is cool, or when there is no justified anger or understandable desire for revenge."

    He also quotes Israeli journalist Amira Hass, daughter of Holocaust survivors, who wrote in Haaretz that "in a few days Israelis went through what Palestinians have experienced as a matter of routine for decades, and are still experiencing."

    "Therefore, this must be said once again—we told you so," Hass added. "Ongoing oppression and injustice explode at unexpected times and places. Bloodshed knows no borders."

    Critics have noted that Israelis can freely express truths that, when voiced by Americans, result in condemnation, ostracism, and even loss of employment.

    — (@)

    This isn't the first time Tlaib and other progressive Democrats have faced possible censure for defending Palestinians' human rights and criticizing U.S. support for Israeli apartheid, occupation, illegal settler colonization, and other crimes. In 2021, a trio of GOP lawmakers tried and failed to censure Tlaib and Omar—the first two Muslim women elected to Congress—and other Squad members for comments criticizing Israel.

    In February, Republicans removed Omar from the House Foreign Affairs Committee in what Jewish Voice for Peace called a "racist attack by the far-right to silence progressives in Congress who speak up for a human rights-centered foreign policy, including Palestinian human rights."

    Tlaib and Omar have also received death threats for expressing their views, and have been targeted by a vast international fake news operation exploiting far-right social media accounts to spread Islamophobia.

    Undaunted, Tlaib told the Free Press Wednesday that she will continue to remind her congressional colleagues that "a Palestinian life is just as important as an Israeli life," and that, like Hamas, the Israeli government "has to be held accountable for some of its atrocities."

    Keep ReadingShow Less
    News
    rashida tlaib

    SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER

    Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.

    subscribe
    below
    * indicates required
    True
    True
    Follow Us
    Most Popular

    New Trump Order Among 'Scariest Things I've Seen in US Politics,' Civil Rights Attorney Says

    Trump's DC Occupation Costs 4 Times More Than It Would Take to House City's Entire Homeless Population

    Trump Is Breaking the Promise Our Nation Made to Military Veterans

    More Countries Condemn Trump's 'Imperialist' Saber-Rattling Against Venezuela

    Here's a Map of What Trump-GOP Destruction of US Hospitals Looks Like

    Trump Says Chicago 'Probably Next' for National Guard Invasion

    Why Are Conservatives So Destructive? It’s Everyone Else’s Fault

    Dems Accuse Trump of 'Another Bullsh*t Manufactured Crisis' to Justify Chicago Invasion

    US Deploys Warships to Venezuelan Coast, Raising Fears of Another 'Regime Change' War

    Trump's Gestapo-Style Raids Mimic Nazi Dictatorship Playbook

    Together, we can defend the truth when it’s under siege.
    Your support powers the fearless, independent reporting that democracy depends on.