On Tuesday night, the eve of the anti-Israel event Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) was supposed to speak at, it was revealed that Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) had blocked the event from taking place. "It’s wrong for members of Congress to traffic in anti-Semitic tropes about Israel," he told the Washington Free Beacon. "As long as I’m Speaker, we are going to support Israel’s right to self-determination and self-defense, unequivocally and in a bipartisan fashion." That didn't stop the congresswoman from still holding her event to mark Israel's founding as a "Nakba," or "catastrophe," which she did in the committee room for the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP), thanks to Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-VT).
Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), one of the organizers of the original event planned at the Capitol Visitor Center, tweeted out moments of the event in a thread spanning over a dozen tweets. Tlaib is featured throughout, and fellow squad member Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) was also present.
Tlaib tweeted about the event from her official and campaign account.
From the former account, the squad member even called on reporters to go with a particular narrative of her choosing, though many users took issue.
Other organizations and individuals who have raised issue with recognizing "Palestine" including the Israel Science and Technology Directory, The Hague Initiative for International Cooperation (thinc.), David Harsanyi in his 2019 column for The Federalist, "Sorry You’re Offended, But ‘Palestine’ Does Not Exist," and, more recently, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
Adam Kredo, who has been covering the event for the Washington Free Beacon since before it was set to take place, reported on Thursday that Sanders helped out with the event. He also detailed the difficult spot it put Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) in, who is himself Jewish and has touted himself as being pro-Israel.
Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) was silent Wednesday evening, and although a source close to him told the New York Post he was "totally unaware" that the event would be hosted on the Senate side of the Capitol, his office failed to respond to multiple Washington Free Beacon requests for comment that were sent on Monday and Wednesday informing him of Tlaib's plans. Also unaware was Sanders's Republican counterpart on the committee that hosted Tlaib, adding new drama to a controversy that has been brewing on the Hill since the Free Beacon first reported Monday on the event.
"I wholeheartedly disapprove of the Majority permitting the use of the HELP Committee room for this divisive event," Sen. Bill Cassidy (R., La.), the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee’s ranking member, said in a statement provided to the Free Beacon. "The Capitol Grounds should not be used as a pedestal to legitimize anti-Semitic bigotry."
Schumer's silence conflicts with his repeated claims of being a pro-Israel leader in the Democratic Party. The Jewish senator frequently boasts about his pro-Israel bonafides but has publicly defended Tlaib and her anti-Israel colleague, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.), most notably during a 2019 episode in which Israel denied the two House members entry into the country. Other Democrats on the committee also did not respond to requests for comment on the matter.
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Schumer also is facing pressure from Jewish advocacy groups, including the Coalition for Jewish Values, an organization representing more than 2,000 rabbis. In a letter sent to Schumer on Wednesday and obtained by the Free Beacon, the rabbinical group accused Schumer of not living up to his pro-Israel rhetoric.
"You have often reminded the Jewish community that your last name, Schumer, comes from the Hebrew word 'Shomer', a watchman, and that you guard both the US-Israel relationship and American and Jewish values," the group wrote. "Yet both the notions of bipartisan support for Israel and that hatred should not be promoted in Congress were both actively undermined on Wednesday evening, May 10, on your watch. This moment demands your response."
The Coalition was instrumental in pushing McCarthy to cancel Tlaib's event on the House side of Congress, but failed to receive any reply from Schumer when it petitioned him on Tuesday to condemn the anti-Semitic event.
Not only did HELP Ranking Member Bill Cassidy (R-LA) not know about and express outrage, but the event has also appeared to put Democrats in disarray, as Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) condemned it. Rosen has also tweeted about her involvement in pro-Israel events from her official account.
In response to tweets from DAWN and several others discussing the event, David Suissa of the Jewish Journal has shared his perspective on how Tlaib is hurting the Palestinians she claims to support. "How Rep Rashida Tlaib’s Nakba Event Hurts the Palestinians," his headline from Tuesday read, adding in his subheadline that "For many Arabs living in Israel today, a more accurate word than Nakba would be Fursa, or opportunity."
Tlaib has caused disarray among fellow Democrats before. She condemned the Biden administration for keeping the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem. Members of her own party also took issue with her point made last September that "you cannot claim to hold progressive values, yet back Israel’s apartheid government."
She is not merely looking to hold events, but is even looking for the United States to recognize the "Nakba" through a resolution she introduced on Wednesday.
In the midst of such an event going on just before Israeli's 75th anniversary, Jihadist terrorists have been launching rockets. Many rockets actually fell short, killing Palestinians as a result.
Communities along the Gaza border are taking heavy fire from Islamic Jihad today after a night of Israeli air strikes along the strip pic.twitter.com/JaJlZpT6G3
— Trey Yingst (@TreyYingst) May 12, 2023
UN Special Rapporteur @FranceskAlbs still hasn't condemned the terrorists firing rockets from densely populated neighborhoods in #Gaza.
— Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) May 12, 2023
It's too much to hope that she would sympathize with Israelis being fired at, but she won't even stand up for Palestinians being used as human… pic.twitter.com/K45ueVi6XA
Using the Palestinian people as human shields, #IslamicJihad continues to fire from within #Gaza’s residential neighborhoods, launching yet another barrage at Israeli civilians, this time reaching as far as the #Jerusalem suburbs. pic.twitter.com/F6ICn1y6Yg
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) May 12, 2023
Some reports say additional terrorist rockets were fired from Gaza without triggering sirens, falling short and causing more harm to innocent Palestinians. https://t.co/Y6WCf3zC06
— Israel War Room (@IsraelWarRoom) May 12, 2023
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