Rashida Tlaib | A lone voice Premium

In a rare move, the U.S. House of Representatives on November 7 passed a motion of censure against one of its members. It voted 234-188 to censure Rashida Tlaib (47), a three-term Democrat politician who represents Michigan’s 12th Congressional district. Only 25 members have ever been censured in the House’s history.

In a rare move, the U.S. House of Representatives on November 7 passed a motion of censure against one of its members. It voted 234-188 to censure Rashida Tlaib (47), a three-term Democrat politician who represents Michigan’s 12th Congressional district. Only 25 members have ever been censured in the House’s history.

Ms. Tlaib is the lone Palestinian-American and one of only three Muslim lawmakers in the American Congress. Even in a House heavily polarised along party lines, the resolution, moved by the Republicans, received significant bipartisan support, as it typically does on matters concerning Israel. Twenty-two Democrats voted to censure a member of their own party, while four Republicans voted against it, on free speech grounds.

This is the second censure motion Ms. Tlaib has faced over her comments on Israel’s war on Gaza. The first one, introduced a week earlier by Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, had accused Ms. Tlaib of “anti-Semitic activity, sympathising with terrorist organisations and leading an insurrection”. But it was blocked, spurring the Republicans to try again.

A censure motion, which is one step below expulsion, is considered a major public reprimand — more serious than the formal admonition that fellow Democrat Ilhan Omar had received when she was removed from the House Foreign Affairs Committee for her comments on the Israel lobby in the U.S. Incidentally, both Ms. Omar and Ms. Tlaib are members of ‘The Squad’, an informal group of eight Democrat members of Congress known for advocating progressive policies popular with the younger generation.

Ms. Tlaib, born in Detroit to working class Palestinian immigrants, is a lawyer who entered politics in 2004 and has been a member of Congress since 2009. On the Israel-Palestine issue, she supports a one-state solution as well as the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against the government of Israel.

Although she has publicly condemned the October 7 Hamas attack several times, and proclaimed that Israeli and Palestinian lives are of equal worth to her, her pro-Israeli critics took issue with her for sharing a video that showed crowds chanting, ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’. Israel interprets this slogan as a call for the elimination of the state of Israel.

Ms. Tlaib defended the slogan, clarifying that it was “an aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence”. The phrase has its roots in the anti-colonial movement. Ms. Tlaib’s refusal to retract, however, led to the censure motion. Incidentally, the same coinage for which Ms. Tlaib was censured figures prominently in the official charter of Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party, which states that “between the Sea and the Jordan [River] there will only be Israeli sovereignty”.