Rashida Tlaib Finds Herself Increasingly Isolated

Progressive politicians and local Michigan Democrats are increasingly distancing themselves from Rashida Tlaib after she defended the use of the controversial pro-Palestinian phrase "from the river to the sea."

On Friday, the Democratic representative for Michigan, who is of Palestinian descent, described the chant as "an aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence, not death, destruction, or hate."

"From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free," is a phrase commonly voiced at pro-Palestinian rallies. However, it is contentious because it implies support for the dismantling of the Israeli state, as it references the Jordan River on Israel's eastern border and the Mediterranean Sea to the west.

Hamas, the militant group which staged a surprise attack on Israel on October 7, killing an estimated 1,400, including many civilians, adopted the slogan following its formation in the 1980s, and some Jewish groups say it amounts to antisemitism—though others contest this claim.

Since her public defense of the phrase, Tlaib, who has attended pro-Palestinian rallies and is among those to call for a ceasefire in the current conflict between Israel and Hamas, has been challenged on her remarks by fellow progressives and state party officials.

On Sunday, Bernie Sanders, a senator for Vermont who has championed progressive values, told CNN that while Tlaib was his "friend," that "slogans like '[from] the river to the sea,' if that means the destruction of Israel, that's not going to work."

He added: "People who are saying: 'Israel, right or wrong, we're for you all the way,' that's not going to work [either]. This is a horrendously complex issue."

Meanwhile, when asked about whether she agreed with Tlaib's claim that U.S. President Joe Biden supports "genocide," Pramila Jayapal, a U.S. representative for Washington state and chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, told MSNBC that she was "not willing to say," but that her colleague was "not the first person to say this."

On Saturday, Dana Nessel, Michigan's attorney general and a Jewish Democrat, told Tlaib that while she had "supported and defended you countless times," her comments regarding the "from the river to the sea" chant on this occasion were "indefensible."

"This is so hurtful to so many," she said. "Please retract this cruel and hateful remark."

Noah Arbit, a Jewish Democrat state representative, said that it was "disturbing and enraging" that the Jewish community in Tlaib's constituency were being represented in Congress by "someone who adopts wholesale the call for the state of Israel to be wiped from the map."

Jeremy Moss, a Michigan state senator who is also Jewish, said of Tlaib's remarks that "this is not how Jews view the phrase." He added: "The words of our congresswoman enflame the tensions here in an already tragic conflict."

Newsweek approached Tlaib's office via email for comment on Monday.

The phrase has received renewed scrutiny as pro-Palestinian protests around the world have grown in response to Israeli military intervention in Gaza, where Hamas is based. To date, the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry says over 9,700 Palestinians have been killed, mainly in airstrikes.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a U.S. hate watchdog, described the chant as "an antisemitic slogan" as it "den[ies] the Jewish right to self-determination, including through the removal of Jews from their ancestral homeland." It said that usage of the phrase can make Jews "feel unsafe and ostracized."

Others deny the chant always amounts to hate speech, though. On October 20, London's Metropolitan Police said that while it could "envisage scenarios where chanting these words could be unlawful, such as outside a synagogue or Jewish school, or directly at a Jewish person," in the context of a protest it "would not be an offence and would not result in arrests."

However, Suella Braverman, the British home secretary, who is responsible for policing, wrote on X, formerly Twitter: "The slogan was taken up by Islamists, including Hamas, and remains a staple of antisemitic discourse. To hear it shouted in public causes alarm, not just to Jews, but to all decent people."

A pro-Palestinian protest in Austria was banned by police last month as the chant was mentioned in invitations, Reuters reported, However, one pro-Palestinian legal organization recently claimed that an appeals court in the Netherlands had ruled that it was "subject to various interpretations" and did not necessarily relate to Jews.

Amazon has recently come in for criticism for continuing to allow the sale of merchandise bearing the slogan on its platform, while last month, students at George Washington University faced backlash for projecting it, along with other messages, onto the wall of a library.

Correction, 12/6/23, 4 a.m. ET: This article was updated to clarify Pramila Jayapal's comments.