Omar, Tlaib demand congressional leaders condemn 'anti-Muslim' and 'anti-Palestinian hate'
Muslim lawmakers call out GOP bill aimed at expelling Palestinians from US
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Three progressive House Democrats are calling on congressional leaders in both parties to condemn "anti-Muslim" and "anti-Palestinian hate" they said is growing more pervasive in U.S. politics.
Reps. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and André Carson, D-Ind., the only three Muslim lawmakers in the House, also singled out a new bill introduced by Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., aimed at expelling Palestinians from the U.S.
"Let’s be clear: using the full power of the state to target and persecute a particular ethnic group or nationality is fascism and pure bigotry," the joint statement said on Tuesday afternoon. "Unfortunately, this legislation is part of a growing tide of bigoted anti-Muslim, anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian hate pervading our politics."
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Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib released a joint statement with Rep. Andre Carson calling out "anti-Palestinian hate."
In addition to Zinke’s bill, they singled out Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., calling to "level" the Gaza Strip, Rep. Max Miller, R-Ohio, warning Gaza would be "turned into a parking lot," and Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla., for comparing Palestinian civilians to Nazis. That comment also put Mast on the receiving end of a Democratic censure resolution.
"This targeting does not just put Palestinian-American lives at risk, but all Muslim-Americans, Arab-Americans, Sikhs, and other people of color who share our identities," the progressives said.
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"We call on the leadership of both parties to vocally and specifically condemn these comments and legislation, to make clear that anti-Muslim and anti-Arab hate has no place in our politics, and to name it when it happens."
Rep. Andre Carson is one of the three Muslim lawmakers in the House. (Jacquelyn Martin-Pool/Getty Images)
Zinke responded to their statement, "It’s unconscionable that Members of the United States Congress would care more about Palestinian terrorists than the safety of Americans."
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The House voted along bipartisan lines to censure Tlaib on Tuesday night over her anti-Israel comments in the wake of the Oct. 7 surprise attack on Israel by terrorist group Hamas.
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Tlaib, the only Palestinian American in Congress, has come under bipartisan criticism after sharing a video on social platform X that included the phrase, "From the river to the sea," a pro-Palestinian liberation slogan.
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Rep. Ryan Zinke introduced legislation to expel Palestinians from the U.S. (Al Drago/Getty Images)
Her critics have pointed out that the rallying cry implicitly calls for the destruction of Israel as a state. Hamas has also co-opted the phrase.
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"It is fundamentally a call for a Palestinian state extending from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, territory that includes the State of Israel, which would mean the dismantling of the Jewish state," the Anti-Defamation League’s website says. "It is an antisemitic charge denying the Jewish right to self-determination, including through the removal of Jews from their ancestral homeland."
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Twenty-two Democrats voted with 212 Republicans to censure Tlaib. It passed 234 to 188.