Tlaib's defense of Palestinian chant prompts Jewish Democrats to call for retraction

U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib's defense of a phrase used by Palestinians in connection with the war between Israel and Hamas is drawing condemnation from critics, including two prominent fellow Democrats — Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel and U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin.

On Friday, Tlaib posted a video on the social platform X in which she said President Joe Biden's support of Israel would cost him reelection in 2024, accused him in a lettered overlay of supporting "the genocide of the Palestinian people" and showed protesters in Michigan yelling the slogan "From the river to the sea!" The Detroit Democrat called for Biden to support an immediate cease-fire.

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The lone Palestinian American in Congress linked that tweet to another one that explained what she said she meant by "from the river to the sea" — which refers to from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, or the land between the bodies of water that includes Israel.

"From the river to the sea is an aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence, not death, destruction, or hate," she tweeted Friday. "My work and advocacy is always centered in justice and dignity for all people no matter faith or ethnicity."

The tweet prompted 29,000 responses, many of them condemning the phrase as antisemitic because it is also used by Hamas, the ruling party in Gaza that launched an Oct. 7 attack in Israel that kidnapped more than 200 people and killed civilians, including women and children.

Among the most prominent critics was Nessel, who is Jewish.

"@RashidaTlaib, I have supported and defended you countless times, even when you have said the indefensible, because I believed you to be a good person whose heart was in the right place," she tweeted.

"But this is so hurtful to so many. Please retract this cruel and hateful remark."

Slotkin, Michigan's only Jewish delegation member, joined Nessel in calling on Tlaib to retract the tweet. 

"... I have worked to reach out to Arab & Muslim constituents who I know are feeling fear and anguish right now, & I have tried to reflect that empathy in my approach to this crisis. I ask the same of @RepRashida," Slotkin tweeted Sunday.

"The phrase “from the river to the sea” is one of division & violence, & it is counterproductive to promoting peace. None of us, especially elected leaders, should amplify language that inflames a tense situation & makes it harder for our communities to find common ground.

"If I knew that a phrase I’d used had hurt any of my constituents, I would apologize & retract it, no matter its origin. I’d ask the same from you."

State Sen. Jeremy Moss, D-Southfield, whose comment Nessel retweeted and added a statement, was more blunt.

"This is not how Jews view the phrase 'from the river to the sea,'" wrote Moss, who is Jewish. "This is not how Hamas views the phrase 'from the river to the sea.'

"Hamas uses it as a rallying cry. And they don’t simply want to displace Jews in Israel. They want Jews dead."

Tlaib's office didn't respond to a request for comment.

The three-term congresswoman is at odds with many in the Democratic Party in her support for a one-state solution that would meld Israel, the West Bank and Gaza into one country, over a two-state option that would create an independent Israel and Palestine.

Tlaib has said she’s not calling for the expulsion of Jews from Israel or their destruction but for peaceful co-existence and equal rights for Palestinians and Israelis.

In an email appeal Sunday, Tlaib’s campaign said she “will not back down in leading our movement and demanding a ceasefire now" in the Israel-Hamas war.

“The lie that any critique of the Israeli government is antisemitic sets a dangerous precedent, and it’s being used to silence diverse voices speaking up for human rights across our country," the campaign email said.

The phrase, said Mark Tessler, professor of political science at the University of Michigan, means there should be one state, not two. Historic Palestine's borders were defined by the Jordan River in the east and the Mediterranean Sea in the west. 

"Who has the right to live there, and who will rule the country, are not, strictly speaking, defined by the phrase," Tessler said. "But when Palestinians use the phrase today, it usually means that there should be a Palestinian state in Palestine. The (Palestinian Liberation Organization) proposed something along these lines some years ago, but it was to be a secular and democratic state in which both Palestinians and Jews would live.  I don't know if people using the phrase today know about the PLO's one-state proposal."

Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud, where he and Tlaib were at environment justice rally Sunday in Dearborn, said the Arab and Muslim community knows the phrase to mean "Harmony among all people."

"The Arab community and the Muslim community, when we talk about a free Palestine, we talk about individuals no longer living under oppression or a brutal military rule," Hammoud said. "... When you look at a phrase like that, the way our community knows that message to be, is that all people, whether Christian, Jewish or Muslim community, living together side by side in harmony, understanding that they all have equal rights."

"The ultimate goal is that we want peace throughout the region, and to get peace, you need justice," he said, adding that he also supports a cease-fire in Gaza.

The Associated Press reported Saturday the Palestinian death toll in the Israel-Hamas war has reached 9,448, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza. In Israel, more than 1,400 people have been killed, most of them in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that sparked the war.

The controversy came after the Republican-controlled U.S. House voted 222-186 on Wednesday to table a resolution to censure Tlaib about her criticism of Israel, a U.S. ally. The effort was squelched by all Democrats and at least 23 House Republicans, including Michigan Reps. Tim Walberg of Tipton, Bill Huizenga of Holland and John Moolenaar of Caledonia.

Walberg, Michigan's most senior Republican in Congress, said Wednesday that while he "strongly" disagrees with her criticism of Israel in its war with Hamas, he defends Tlaib's First Amendment right to free speech.

"From the river to the sea, Palestine will soon be free" was chanted Saturday by thousands of demonstrators in Washington, D.C., who opposed the Biden administration’s support of Israel and its continued military campaign in Gaza.

Mariam Charara, executive director of the Arab American Civil Rights League, made a distinction between a call for freedom and a call for violence in an email Sunday.

"Congresswoman Rashida has consistently advocated for the rights and well-being of Palestinians without promoting violence against anyone. Her focus is on ending the suffering of innocent Palestinians in Gaza, a cause that resonates with anyone with a conscience.

"Rashida’s intentions have always been rooted in seeking justice and a better future for all, regardless of their faith, and I believe it’s crucial to recognize the aspirations of the Palestinian people in this matter," Charara said.

Many Palestinian-Americans have argued, like Tlaib, that the phrase is a call for freedom that gained traction in the 1960s.

Palestinians see the state of Israel as their former homeland that was torn apart in 1947 when the United Nations voted to partition the territory into a Jewish state and an Arab state, wrote Maha Nassar, an associate professor in the School of Middle Eastern and North African Studies at the University of Arizona, in a 2018 essay in The Forward, a Jewish publication.

"... (T)hey saw all of Palestine — from the river to the sea — as one indivisible homeland," Nassar wrote.

The call for a free Palestine "was part of a larger call to see a secular democratic state established in all of historic Palestine. Palestinians hoped their state would be free from oppression of all sorts, from Israeli as well as from Arab regimes."

But the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish group, argued in an Oct. 26 post on its website that it is "an antisemitic slogan commonly featured in anti-Israel campaigns and chanted at demonstrations."

"This rallying cry has long been used by anti-Israel voices, including supporters of terrorist organizations such as Hamas and the PFLP, which seek Israel’s destruction through violent means," ADL wrote. "... It is an antisemitic charge denying the Jewish right to self-determination, including through the removal of Jews from their ancestral homeland."

Mike Rogers, a former Republican congressman and House Intelligence Committee chairman who is running for U.S. Senate, said on X Saturday evening that Tlaib's "rhetoric is dangerous."

"Israel has every right to defend itself and to destroy Hamas following the terrorists attacks that killed over 1,400 innocent Israelis. Rashida Tlaib’s rhetoric is dangerous, reprehensible, and emboldens terrorists to commit further atrocities," Rogers said.

Staff Writer Melissa Nann Burke contributed.

mjohnson@detroitnews.com