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Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich, refused on Wednesday to reply a number of questions concerning the pro-Palestinian rallying cry “from the river to the ocean” and whether or not she is antisemitic — after the White Home mentioned using the phrase may be antisemitic.
Fox Information’ Hillary Vaughn quizzed the Palestinian-American lawmaker, asking her if she regrets utilizing the phrase.
“Congresswoman, do you remorse utilizing the phrase “from the river to the ocean”? It is utilized by terrorists to name for the genocide of the Jewish individuals. Do you remorse utilizing it?” Vaughn mentioned.
Tlaib didn’t reply.
RASHIDA TLAIB PRESSED TO EXPLAIN ‘FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA’ PHRASING AFTER HOUSE VOTES TO CENSURE HER
Vaughn then famous feedback by the White Home this week, wherein press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre referred to as the phrase divisive and hurtful and that “many discover it antisemitic.”
Vaughn then requested Tlaib, “Are you antisemitic, Congresswoman Tlaib” 5 instances, every time receiving no reply.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., speaks throughout an indication calling for a ceasefire in Gaza close to the Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 18. (AP Picture/Amanda Andrade-Rhoades, File)
Tlaib posted to social media not too long ago and mentioned the phrase was about “peaceable coexistence.”
“From the river to the ocean is an aspirational name for freedom, human rights, and peaceable coexistence, not loss of life, destruction, or hate. My work and advocacy is all the time centered in justice and dignity for all individuals regardless of religion or ethnicity,” she wrote on X.
Tlaib was censured within the Republican-controlled Home in a 234-188 vote final wee, on a decision wherein she was accused of “selling false narratives concerning the October 7, 2023, Hamas assault on Israel and for calling for the destruction of the state of Israel.”
Critics have mentioned the “from the river to the ocean” phrase implicitly includes the destruction of Israel.
Reps. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., left, and Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., launched a joint assertion with Rep. Andre Carson, D-Ind., calling out “anti-Palestinian hate.” (Getty Photos)
“It’s essentially a name for a Palestinian state extending from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, territory that features the State of Israel, which might imply the dismantling of the Jewish state,” the Anti-Defamation League’s web site says. “It’s an antisemitic cost denying the Jewish proper to self-determination, together with by way of the elimination of Jews from their ancestral homeland.”
In 2020, the antisemitism watchdog StopAntisemitism blasted Tlaib for retweeting the phrase, calling it “code for eradicating the State of Israel and its thousands and thousands of Jews.”
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The phrase has additionally acquired sharp criticism from others, together with former counterterrorism skilled Nathan Gross sales, who mentioned final month that when protesters chant “Palestine from the river to the ocean,” they’re actually calling for the “extermination of the Jewish state.”
“They assume that Israel should not exist in any respect,” Nathan Gross sales instructed Fox Information’ “Sunday Evening in America.” “That is exterminationist rhetoric and our First Modification signifies that we’ve to tolerate this sort of speech, however the antidote for that sort of abhorrent speech is extra speech. We have to expose what these Hamas sympathizers are actually all about.”
Fox Information’ Aubrie Spady, Brandon Gillespie and Hanna Penreck contributed to this report.
Adam Shaw is a politics reporter for Fox Information Digital, primarily protecting immigration and border safety.
He may be reached at adam.shaw2@fox.com or on Twitter.
