Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) spoke against the motion to censure her, and called for a ceasefire in Israel to protect Palestinian civilians.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 I'm the only Palestinian American serving in Congress, Mr. Chair, and my perspective
00:04 is needed here now more than ever.
00:07 I will not be silenced, and I will not let you distort my words.
00:12 Folks forget I'm from the city of Detroit, the most beautiful blackest city in the country
00:16 where I learned to speak truth to power even if my voice shakes.
00:20 Trying to bully or censor me won't work because this movement for a ceasefire is much bigger
00:27 than one person.
00:28 It's growing every single day.
00:30 There are millions of people across our country who oppose Netanyahu's extremism and are done
00:36 watching our government support collective punishment and the use of white phosphorus
00:39 bombs that melt flesh to the bone.
00:42 They are done watching our government, Mr. Chair, supporting cutting off food, water,
00:46 electricity, and medical care to millions of people with nowhere to go.
00:50 Like me, Mr. Chair, they don't believe the answer to war crimes is more war crimes.
00:55 The refusal of Congress and the administration to acknowledge Palestinian lives is chipping
00:59 away at my soul.
01:01 Over 10,000 Palestinians have been killed.
01:04 Majority were children.
01:07 But let me be clear.
01:09 My criticism has always been of the Israeli government and Netanyahu's actions.
01:14 It is important to separate people and governments, Mr. Chair.
01:17 No government is beyond criticism.
01:20 The idea that criticizing the government of Israel is anti-Semitic sets a very dangerous
01:24 precedent and it's being used to silence diverse voices speaking up for human rights across
01:29 our nation.
01:31 Do you realize what it's like, Mr. Chair, for the people outside the chamber right now
01:36 listening in agony to their own government dehumanizing them?
01:39 To hear the President of the United States we helped elect dispute death tolls as we
01:43 see video after video of dead children and parents under rubble.
01:47 Mr. Chair, do you know what it's like to fear rising hate crimes, to know how Islamophobia
01:52 and anti-Semitism makes us all less safe, and worry that your own child might suffer
01:57 the horrors that six-year-old Wadiyat did in Illinois?
02:01 I can't believe I have to say this, but Palestinian people are not disposable.
02:22 We are human beings just like anyone else.
02:28 My sissy, my grandmother, like all Palestinians, just wants to live her life with freedom and
02:37 human dignity we all deserve.
02:40 Speaking up to save lives, Mr. Chair, no matter faith, no matter ethnicity, should not be
02:45 controversial in this chamber.
02:47 The cries of the Palestinian and Israeli children sound no different to me.
02:53 Why?
02:54 What I don't understand is why the cries of Palestinians sound different to you all.
03:02 We cannot lose our shared humanity, Mr. Chair.
03:06 I hear the voices of advocates in Israel, in Palestine, across America, and around the
03:12 world for peace.
03:13 I am inspired by the courageous survivors in Israel who have lost loved ones, yet are
03:19 calling for a ceasefire and the end to violence.
03:23 I am grateful to the people in the streets for the peace movement, with countless Jewish
03:29 Americans across the country standing up and lovingly saying, "Not in our name."
03:37 We will continue to call for a ceasefire, Mr. Chair, for the immediate delivery of critical
03:41 humanitarian aid to Gaza, for the release of all hostages and those arbitrarily detained,
03:46 and for every American to come home.
03:49 We will continue to work for a real, lasting peace that upholds human rights and dignity
03:53 of all people, and centers in peaceful coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians, and censures
03:59 no one, and ensures that no person, no child, has to suffer or live in fear of violence.
04:07 Seventy-one percent of Michigan Democrats support a ceasefire.
04:12 So you can try to censure me, but you can't silence their voices.
04:17 I urge my colleagues to join with the majority of Americans and support a ceasefire now to
04:21 save as many lives as possible.
04:24 President Biden must listen to and represent all of us, not just some of us.
04:29 I urge the President to have the courage to call for a ceasefire and the end of killings.
04:35 Thank you, and I yield.
04:36 (Applause.)
04:37 THE PRESIDENT: The gentlelady yields back.
04:38 A gentleman from Maryland Reserves.
04:39 (Applause.)
04:39 Gentleman from Maryland Reserves.