House Speaker Kevin McCarthy took action late Tuesday to block Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) from using space in the Capitol building to host an anti-Israel event.
What did Tlaib plan?
The Democratic lawmaker planned to host an event at the Capitol to mark “Nakba,” an Arabic word meaning “catastrophe” or “disaster.” It is a Palestinian day of remembrance that mourns the creation of Israel.
Tlaib is listed as a “special guest” on the event invitation. But, according to the Washington Free Beacon, ” the event will take place at the Capitol Visitor Center, whose event space can only be reserved by a sitting member of Congress.”
More from the Free Beacon on who was scheduled to attend:
Tlaib’s cosponsors include Jewish Voice for Peace, a “radical anti-Israel activist group” that pushes the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement and has come under fire for glorifying Palestinian terrorism. Other organizers include Emgage Action, another BDS supporter that claims Israel is an “apartheid state,” and Americans for Justice in Palestine Action, an advocacy group that claims Jewish money is infecting politics.
What did McCarthy do?
He canceled the event.
“This event in the US Capitol is canceled,” McCarthy announced on Twitter. “Instead, I will host a bipartisan discussion to honor the 75th anniversary of the US-Israel relationship.”
“It’s wrong for members of Congress to traffic in anti-Semitic tropes about Israel,” McCarthy later told the Free Beacon. “As long as I’m speaker, we are going to support Israel’s right to self-determination and self-defense, unequivocally and in a bipartisan fashion.”
It’s not clear what will become of the event, which was scheduled to take place at 6 p.m.
Meanwhile, Tlaib has introduced a new resolution calling on the U.S. to acknowledge “the ongoing Nakba and Palestinian refugees rights.”
The resolution also calls on Congress to “condemn all manifestations of Israel’s ongoing Nakba against the Palestinian people, including Israel’s illegal theft of Palestinian land in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem; Israel’s displacement of Palestinians by destroying their homes and forcing them from their land; and the daily brutality and violence inflicted by the Israeli military and Israeli settlers against Palestinian civilians.”
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