Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
- House Republicans teed up a vote on a resolution saying Israel is "not a racist or apartheid state."
- It came days after Rep. Pramila Jayapal, a top progressive, said Israel is a "racist state."
- Nine progressive House Democrats voted against the resolution.
Nine progressive House Democrats on Tuesday voted against a resolution declaring that Israel is neither a racist nor an apartheid state.
The resolution, which passed by an overwhelming 412-9-1 margin, was hastily put on the floor by House Republicans after Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington, the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, called Israel a "racist state" at an event in Chicago over the weekend.
Jayapal has since walked back the remarks, saying that the "idea of Israel as a nation" is not racist while emphasizing that Israel's government has "engaged in discriminatory and outright racist policies."
—Rep. Pramila Jayapal (@RepJayapal) July 16, 2023
House Democratic leadership issued a statement on Sunday declaring that Israel is "not a racist state," while a group of 43 House Democrats released a statement on Tuesday saying they were "deeply concerned" about Jayapal's "unacceptable comments."
The congresswoman has since argued to the New York Times that strong supporters of Israel in Congress "want to silence any discussion of any criticism" of the country because they're "feeling that they've lost credibility" in the face of policies pursued by Israeli hard-right Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The one-page resolution, sponsored by Republican Rep. August Pfluger of Texas, states that Israel is "not a racist or apartheid state," that Congress "rejects all forms of antisemitism and xenophobia," and that the US will "always be a staunch partner and supporter of Israel."
In recent years, a growing crop of progressive Democrats — including Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, the first two Muslim women elected to Congress — have spoken out against the Israeli government's policies, particularly its treatment of Palestinians and a series of Israeli government policies that have made the prospect of a two-state solution increasingly untenable.
In a floor speech earlier on Tuesday, Tlaib made clear she would vote against the resolution, stating that Congress was "re-affirming support for apartheid."
Omar said in a statement ahead of the vote that the purpose of the resolution was to "target and shame" Jayapal. She added that while she rejects xenophobia and anti-Semitism, she said "conflating anti-Semitism with criticism of the Israeli government is wrong."
Several human rights groups, both internationally and within Israel, have used the "apartheid" label to describe a system of government in Israel and the Palestinian Territories that they say increasingly resembles that of pre-1990s South Africa.
"While the term may be discomforting, I don't believe it is appropriate for Congress to be explicitly targeting the legal findings of human rights groups in this way," said Omar. "We shouldn't allow for the silencing of voices supporting Palestinian human rights."
Altogether, these 9 House Democrats voted against the resolution:
- Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York
- Rep. Andre Carson of Indiana
- Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts
- Rep. Cori Bush of Missouri
- Rep. Delia Ramirez of Illinois
- Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota
- Rep. Jamaal Bowman of New York
- Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan
- Rep. Summer Lee of Pennsylvania
Democratic Rep. Betty McCollum of Minnesota voted "present."
The vote came just one day before Israeli President Isaac Herzog was scheduled to speak to Congress in a joint session. Several House progressives have said they plan to skip the speech in protest of Israel's treatment of Palestinians.
Meanwhile, House Republicans have stood firmly by their plans to invite Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr to testify before a House subcommittee on the issue of censorship, despite his recent speculation that COVID-19 was "ethnically targeted" to spare Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people.
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