Mia Khalifa Makes Radical Claim About Rashida Tlaib

Mia Khalifa has shared a claim that all Democrats who joined Republicans to censure Representative Rashida Tlaib this week have received substantive donations from a pro-Israel political action committee.

The House of Representatives on Tuesday voted to censure the Democratic representative of Michigan and the only Palestinian American in Congress by 234 votes to 188 over what she said about the Israel-Hamas war. Tlaib sparked criticism last week by defending the controversial slogan "from the river to the sea" and urged lawmakers to join in calls for a ceasefire in Gaza.

The phrase is contentious, with the Anti-Defamation League saying it implies "the dismantling of the Jewish state." But Tlaib calls the chant an "aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence, not death, destruction, or hate."

"I will not be silenced and I will not let you distort my words," Tlaib said in the House. "No government is beyond criticism. The idea that criticizing the government of Israel is antisemitic sets a very dangerous precedent, and it's been used to silence diverse voices speaking up for human rights across our nation."

Tlaib also said she had condemned the Hamas attacks on Israeli citizens several times and she has in the past called the war a "genocide."

Hamas' October 7 surprise attack was the deadliest Palestinian militant attack on Israel in history. Israel subsequently launched its heaviest-ever airstrikes on Gaza. More than 10,500 people in Gaza have died since the war started, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry. Hamas killed 1,400 people in Israel in its October 7 attack.

Nearly two dozen Democrats joined Republicans in the vote to censure Tlaib over her comments, while just four Republicans voted against the measure.

Weighing in on this, former adult film actress Khalifa shared a claim that all of the Democrats who voted to censure Tlaib had taken sizable donations from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a bipartisan, pro-Israel political action committee.

"Every single democrat that voted to censure Rep. Rashida Tlaib got between $35k up to $1.2M in campaign donations from AIPAC, a pro-Israel policy lobby group," Khalifa wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday.

One X user responded to Khalifa's claim by sharing a link to the website of OpenSecrets, a nonprofit organization that tracks data on campaign finance and lobbying. The website lists the several Democrats and Republicans in Congress who have received funds campaign funds from AIPAC.

While the list shows the names of those who have received funds from AIPAC, there is no evidence to suggest that those who voted to censure Tlaib did not do so independently of this. A number of Democrats listed as having received AIPAC funds did not vote to censure Tlaib.

When another X user reposted a TikTok video listing the Democrats who voted to censure Tlaib, Lebanese-born Khalifa—who has long been a vocal supporter of Palestinians—responded: "They're all up for reelection too."

Newsweek has contacted representatives of AIPAC via email for comment.

Representative Ilhan Omar said during a recent debate that her colleague Tlaib "will stand strong" following the action taken against her.

Minnesota Democrat Omar said: "It is glaring hypocrisy when you have Republicans on the other side of the aisle trying to create definitions and saying, 'Rashida wants to annihilate people,' when Max Miller himself went on TV and said, 'We're turning Gaza into a parking lot and we want to annihilate Palestinians.'"

Miller, an Ohio representative and former aide to Donald Trump, said the Palestinian territory will "probably get eviscerated and go away here slowly because we're going to turn that into a parking lot" in an interview with Fox News in October.

Omar continued: "Nobody condemned him on that side of the aisle. What is true here is that every single one of them [Republicans] has not acknowledged the fact that Palestinians are dying in their tens of thousands but will continue to say it is us who are not acknowledging humanity."

"Rashida will stand strong and the Palestinian movement will continue for liberation until every single Palestinian has the right to live in liberty," she said.

Full List of Democrats Who Voted to Censure Rashida Tlaib:

• Steve Cohen
• Jim Costa
• Angie Craig
• Don Davis
• Lois Frankel
• Jared Golden
• Daniel Goldman
• Josh Gottheimer
• Greg Landsman
• Susie Lee
• Kathy Manning
• Jared Moskowitz
• Wiley Nickel
• Chris Pappas
• Marie Gluesenkamp Perez
• Pat Ryan
• Brad Schneider
• Kim Schrier
• Darren Soto
• Ritchie Torres
• Debbie Wasserman Schultz
• Frederica Wilson

Four Republicans voted against the measure, including Representative Ken Buck.
"It's not our job to censure somebody because we don't agree with them," Buck said. "Let the Ethics Committee look at it. Let others look at it, but I will not be voting for a motion to censure unless it's very serious conduct."

The censuring follows an earlier attempt by Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene to censure Tlaib on November 1 over her comments regarding Israel. But with 13 Democrats abstaining and 23 Republicans voting to kill the motion, it wasn't passed, with the final tally being 222 to 186.