Progressive Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan said she will not be voting for Democratic leadership’s standalone bill allocating $1 billion toward Israel’s Iron Dome, she said on Thursday morning, accusing the US ally of ‘war crimes.’
It’s scheduled for a House voter early on in the afternoon.
The bill was introduced by House Appropriations Chair Rep. Rosa DeLauro on Wednesday after House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer first announced it Tuesday night, backed by Speaker Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Schumer and President Biden.
Funding for the Iron Dome was originally part of Democrats’ continuing resolution aimed at suspending the debt ceiling and averting an October government shutdown. It was removed after progressive Democrats, including Tlaib and fellow Squad members Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts threatened to tank the crucial measure otherwise.
But the morning of the vote, Tlaib attacked the measure on Twitter.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib was one of the progressive Democrats threatening to vote against a continuing resolution to avert a government shutdown because its original text included $1 billion toward Israel’s Iron Dome
‘I will not support a standalone supplemental bill of $1 billion to replenish the bombs Israel used to commit war crimes in Gaza,’ she wrote.
The progressive lawmaker was referring to a provision in the text of the bill adding that the funds are being used ‘to address emergent requirements in support of Operation Guardian of the Walls.’
It refers to the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) rocket campaign in May that killed more than 200 Palestinians in the Gaza strip and destroyed apartments, health clinics and a building that contained an Associated Press office.
The IDF said it was targeting Hamas. The terror group also launched thousands of rockets into Israel, killing at least 10 Israelis in what they called Sword of Jerusalem.
Iron Dome missiles intercepted 90 percent of rockets fired into Israel during the bloody conflict, Israeli officials claimed.
Tlaib took issue with a provision in the bill’s text that promotes Israel’s rocket campaign against Gaza in May, dubbed Operation Guardian of the Walls
Tlaib, the only Palestinian American in Congress, announced her intention to vote against the measure on Wednesday night
The text in House Democrats’ bill promoting Operation Guardian of the Walls is relatively vague.
It could be interpreted a number of ways, including the US leaving the door open for more strikes on Gaza. However, intercepting Hamas rockets likely depleted a significant portion of Israel’s Iron Dome missile supply, so the mention could refer to the $1 billion going toward replenishing the stocks.
Tlaib, the only Palestinian American in Congress, first announced her intention to vote against the funds on Wednesday night.
‘I plan on casting a no vote,’ the Michigan lawmaker said. ‘We must stop enabling Israel’s human rights abuses and apartheid government.’
During the conflict in May, Tlaib made an impassioned speech on the House floor, lambasting Israel’s ‘inhumane’ tactics and accused the US government of failing to recognize ‘Palestinian humanity.’
Israel’s Iron Dome aerial defense system is activated to intercept a rocket launched from the Gaza Strip on May 12
A Palestinian man inspects the damage following reported Israeli airstrikes on Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on September 12
‘To read the statements from President Biden and Secretary Blinken, General Austin and leaders of both parties, you’d hardly know Palestinians existed at all,’ Tlaib said in May.
In August, she was accused of anti-Semitism when she told an audience at the Democratic Socialists of America’s national convention that people ‘behind the curtain’ are making money off of racist and ‘broken’ policies.
‘They do it from Gaza to Detroit. And it’s a way to control people, to oppress people,’ she said, earning accusations of using anti-Semitic tropes of Jewish people secretly controlling the world and exploiting others for financial gain.
Yesterday, her fellow Squad member Rep. Ilhan Omar expressed outrage on after House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer announced he’d bring the standalone bill allocating $1 billion toward Israel’s Iron Dome to the House floor.
‘We sold $175 billion in weapons last year—more than anyone in the world—to some of the worst human right abusers in the world,’ Omar wrote on Twitter.
‘Here’s an idea: don’t sell arms to anyone who violates human rights.’