Rep. Dan Goldman censured Rashida Tlaib after she ‘refused’ to clarify ‘river to the sea’ spin
Brooklyn and Manhattan Democratic Rep. Dan Goldman slammed far-left Rep. Rashida Tlaib Wednesday, one day after voting to censure her over her use of what he called a “hurtful antisemitic trope.”
In a lengthy statement, Goldman said Tlaib (D-Mich.) had “promoted misinformation that inflamed violence around the world, including against United States embassies” during the month-long war between Israel and Hamas, before taking her to task over repeating the slogan “from the river to the sea” — a phrase referring to the extermination of the state of Israel and its Jewish residents.
“I reached out to Representative Tlaib privately … to communicate to her the hurt and harm her words have caused and how they have been received by many in the Jewish community,” Goldman said in his statement. “I urged her to make a public clarification, but she refused.”
The lawmaker’s office told The Post that Goldman had specifically sought an explanation for Tlaib’s spin on the slogan as “an aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence, not death, destruction, or hate.”
“Just like we cannot allow public officials to make racist statements against any group nor to incite violence through racist speech, we cannot allow elected officials to do the same against Jews,” said Goldman, one of 22 House Democrats who voted to censure Tlaib Tuesday night.
Goldman’s fellow New Yorker, Ritchie Torres, who also voted to censure Tlaib, agreed, tweeting: “Calling for the end of Israel as a Jewish State, through the insidious phrase ‘from the river to the sea,’ crosses a line of hate speech that no public official should ever cross.
“Congress has a right to take a principled stand against hate speech calling for the destruction of the world’s only Jewish nation-state,” he added.
“‘From the River to the Sea’ means one thing,” tweeted another pro-censure Democrat, Chris Pappas of New Hampshire, “the destruction of the state of Israel and those who call it home.”
Tlaib, the first Palestinian-American woman elected to Congress, played the victim in response to the rebuke.
“It’s a shame my colleagues are more focused on silencing me than they are on saving lives, as the death toll in Gaza surpasses 10,000. Many of them have shown me that Palestinian lives simply do not matter to them,” she said in a statement.
“My colleagues have resorted to distorting my positions in resolutions filled with obvious lies. I have repeatedly denounced the horrific targeting and killing of civilians by Hamas and the Israeli government, and have mourned the Israeli and Palestinian lives lost.”
The resolution to censure Tlaib, authored by Rich McCormick (R-Ga.), accused her of “promoting false narratives” on the war in Israel as well as “calling for the destruction of the state of Israel.”
It cleared the House by a 234-188 vote.
Many progressives were roiled by the defections.
“It is outrageous. I am embarrassed for those Democrats who voted to censure their own colleague, who voted against free speech,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) told CNN.
“Every single one of them has not acknowledged the fact that Palestinians are dying in the tens of thousands but will continue to say it is us who are not acknowledging humanity,” an impassioned Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) said on the House floor.
“Rashida will stand strong. And the Palestinian movement will continue for liberation.”
Internal tensions over Israel have flared up among Democrats since Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attack on southern Israel that killed more than 1,400 people, including at least 33 Americans.
Some left-wing and centrist groups have begun backing primary challengers and funding ad campaigns against members of the so-called “Squad” of House progressives, including Tlaib.
