Democratic Rep Rashida Tlaib and and Republican Rep. Thomas Massie.
Anna Moneymaker and Drew Angerer/Getty Images
The House voted on a resolution affirming Israel’s right to exist on Tuesday.All but two members who cast a vote, voted for it.Rep. Rashida Tlaib voted “present,” while Rep. Thomas Massie voted against it.
The House of Representatives on Tuesday overwhelmingly passed a resolution affirming Israel’s right to exist, and only two members did not vote in favor of it.
Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, the sole Palestinian American in Congress, voted “present,” while Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky voted against it.
Introduced by Republican Rep. Mike Lawler of New York, the resolution affirms a variety of widely accepted facts about Israel and the Jewish people, including the atrocity of the Holocaust and the history of persecution of Jews.
However, the resolution made no mention of Palestinians — who have their own historical claims in the region — even as it stated that Jewish people are “native to the Land of Israel.”
In a statement, Tlaib argued that the resolution “ignores the existence of the Palestinian people” and “brings us no closer to peaceful coexistence.”
The resolution also states that “denying Israel’s right to exist is a form of antisemitism” — which Massie took issue with.
“Antisemitism is deplorable, but expanding it to include criticism of Israel is not helpful,” Massie wrote on X.
I agree with the title “Reaffirming the State of Israel’s Right to Exist” and much of the language, but I’m voting No on the resolution because it equates anti-Zionism with antisemitism. Antisemitism is deplorable, but expanding it to include criticism of Israel is not helpful. pic.twitter.com/YWBDKDCGZB
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) November 29, 2023
It’s not the first time the House has voted on a resolution like this — though it’s the first time in a while that most progressive “Squad” members have voted for it.
In October, 16 lawmakers voted either “present” or against a resolution in support of Israel, and in July, 9 House Democrats voted against a resolution declaring that Israel is “not a racist or apartheid state.”
Rep. Jamaal Bowman of New York, a progressive “Squad” member who voted for the resolution, nonetheless expressed frustration over the vote.
“It seems like we vote on some form of this resolution every single week,” said Bowman. “Do Palestinians have a right to exist? Is someone going to write that resolution? And when it’s written, are we going to vote on it, or are we going to continue to have one conversation without the other?”
Minutes earlier, a separate resolution condemning Hamas and calling for the release of hostages passed unanimously.
The vote comes as Israel increasingly faces criticism of its handling of the war against Hamas. Thousands of Palestinian civilians have died since the initial Hamas attack on October 7, and Democrats in particular have begun talking openly about placing conditions on aid to Israel.
Furthermore, the brutality of the conflict has underscored the ongoing stasis in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
“For many years, the United States has provided Israel substantial sums of money — with close to no strings attached,” Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont wrote in a recent op-ed, saying that “while we are friends of Israel, there are conditions to that friendship” and that “we cannot be complicit in actions that violate international law and our own sense of decency.”