In a recent interaction with Fox News, Representative Rashida Tlaib, a Democrat from Michigan, declined to respond to several inquiries about the pro-Palestinian slogan "from the river to the sea" and its potential antisemitic implications.
This comes in the wake of a statement from the White House indicating that the phrase could be interpreted as antisemitic.
Fox News correspondent Hillary Vaughn posed the question to the Palestinian-American legislator, asking if she regretted using the contentious phrase. Vaughn asked, "Congresswoman, do you regret using the phrase 'from the river to the sea'? It's used by terrorists to call for the genocide of the Jewish people. Do you regret using it?" Tlaib, however, remained silent.
Vaughn also referenced recent remarks made by White House Press Secretary Karine Jean Pierre, who described the phrase as divisive and hurtful, noting that "many find it antisemitic." Despite being asked five times if she was antisemitic, Tlaib chose not to respond.
In a recent social media post, Tlaib defended her use of the phrase, stating it was a call for "peaceful coexistence." She wrote on her social media platform, "From the river to the sea is an aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence, not death, destruction, or hate. My work and advocacy is always centered in justice and dignity for all people no matter faith or ethnicity."
Last week, Tlaib was censured in a 234-188 vote in the Republican-dominated House. The resolution accused her of "promoting false narratives regarding the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and for calling for the destruction of the state of Israel."
The phrase "from the river to the sea" has been criticized for implicitly calling for the destruction of Israel. The Anti-Defamation League's website explains, "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. It is an antisemitic charge denying the Jewish right to self-determination, including through the removal of Jews from their ancestral homeland."
In 2020, the antisemitism watchdog, StopAntisemitism, condemned Tlaib for retweeting the phrase, describing it as "code for eradicating the State of Israel and its millions of Jews."
The phrase has also been criticized by others, including former counterterrorism expert Nathan Sales, who stated that when protestors chant "Palestine from the river to the sea," they are essentially calling for the "extermination of the Jewish state."
Sales told Fox News' "Sunday Night in America," "They think that Israel shouldn't exist at all. This is exterminationist rhetoric and our First Amendment means that we have to tolerate this kind of speech, but the antidote for that kind of abhorrent speech is more speech. We need to expose what these Hamas sympathizers are really all about."
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