Michigan representative Rashida Tlaib protested Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress, displaying a sign reading “War Criminal” and “Guilty of Genocide,” as his country’s attack on Gaza has killed nearly 40,000 people.
Tlaib, who also wore a keffiyeh to the Congressional gallery, is the first and sole Palestinian-American member of Congress. In a statement, the congresswoman described the invite to Netanyahu as “utterly disgraceful,” urging her colleagues to cease funding to the Israeli military.
The series of Israeli military operations at the center of Tlaib's protest began after the October 7th terrorist attack by Hamas, so far displacing more than two million Palestinians. The International Court of Justice ordered a cease on such operations in May, citing the Genocide Convention
I will never back down in speaking truth to power.
— Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) July 24, 2024
The apartheid government of Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians. Palestinians will not be erased. Solidarity with all those outside of these walls in the streets protesting and exercising their right to dissent. pic.twitter.com/TSbbXdv13U
While other congressional progressives opted to boycott the address, Tlaib’s act of protest was coupled with another powerful statement in bringing Hani Almadhoun, an international aid worker who saw family members killed by Israel, as a guest to the address.
“After witnessing his sister forced to eat animal feed, he and his family were determined to start a soup kitchen to feed their starving neighbors,” Tlaib wrote of Almadhoun in a post to X. “The Israeli apartheid regime is using starvation as a weapon of war, a war crime.”
Tlaib’s silent protest of the prime minister’s invitation to D.C. came a day after Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson warned chamber members that attempts to disrupt the address would not be tolerated.
Tlaib, who has been outspoken in opposition to the Biden administration’s enabling of Israeli military action in Gaza, has broken with her Democratic colleagues and fellow members of “the squad” in not yet endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris for president. Harris herself skipped out on presiding over the address.
