Long Island Republican Rep. Anthony D’Esposito on Tuesday formally condemned the use of the slogan “From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will Be Free” as anti-Semitic, according to a copy obtained exclusively by the newspaper. He plans to submit a resolution to do so.
D’Esposito, who represents the hotly contested 4th Congressional District, filed the motion following a resolution earlier this month to censure Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), which cited the use of the term by “Squad” members. We plan to submit it. on social media.
“The “River to Sea” chant calling for liberation is widely used, given that it explicitly calls for the destruction of America’s greatest ally, Israel, and its Jewish population. It’s extremely worrying,” he said. said Esposito in his statement.
“The fact that this anti-Semitic rallying cry is being freely proclaimed on American college campuses is an alarming demonstration of the pervasiveness of anti-Semitic ideas in our nation’s institutions of higher education. “There is,” he added.
“The anti-Semites who exploit the song ‘From the River to the Sea’ are not interested in building lasting peace in the Middle East, but are instead obsessed with seeing the eradication of Israel and the Jewish people. “There is,” the lawmaker continued.
“My resolution provides Congress with an opportunity to formally condemn those who use this slogan to promote anti-Semitism. Those who call for the eradication of Israel and the Jewish people must be firmly rejected. No.”
Tlaib was censured by a vote of 234 to 188, with 22 Democrats voting yes, condemning his use of language calling for the eradication of Israel.
Democratic Congressman Dan Goldman of Brooklyn and Manhattan later said he asked Mr. Tlaib why he used a “venomous anti-Semitic metaphor,” which he later described as “freedom, human rights, and not death, destruction, and hatred.” “It was an aspirational call for peaceful coexistence.” ”
“I personally reached out to Congresswoman Tlaib to express the hurt and harm her words caused and how they were perceived by many in the Jewish community,” he said. said in a Nov. 8 statement posted on X. She asked her to explain publicly, but she refused. ”
Goldman also accused Tlaib of “spreading misinformation that incited violence around the world, including against the U.S. embassy” during Israel’s ongoing war with Hamas terrorists.
D’Esposito’s resolution condemns this language as “an anti-Semitic call to arms aimed at the eradication of the State of Israel, located between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.”
It also includes more than 1,200 victims (mostly civilians, including at least 33 Americans) killed by Hamas jihadists on October 7, and about 240 people returned to the Gaza Strip as hostages. listed.
Hamas invaded a music festival and massacred hundreds of attendees, raping and murdering women and beheading babies during bloodshed. All these atrocities are mentioned in the text of the resolution.
The report notes that the death toll was the highest number of Jews killed in a single day since the Holocaust.
D’Esposito’s motion also notes that “this chant seeks to deny the Jewish people their right to self-determination” and has been used by other terrorist organizations such as the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah.
Hamas’s 2017 charter also uses the word to call for the “complete and complete liberation of Palestine” through “resistance and jihad,” but the terror group’s political bureau chief, Ghazi Hamad, has since promises that this attack will not be the last. .
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi quoted the phrase earlier this month, calling for “the establishment of a Palestinian state” as a legitimate outcome of the war.
Former al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein also chanted “from the river to the sea” in previous calls for the “liberation” of the Palestinian territories.
U.S. demonstrators have also shouted the phrase at protests in major U.S. cities, including an October event at the Capitol that Tlaib attended.
“[S]”Students attending higher education institutions have chanted and continue to chant this slogan since the barbaric October 7th massacre, all the while fellow Jewish students are being harassed and threatened,” Esposito said. says the resolution.
“[T]His chants have recently been used by violent protesters in the United States and around the world.”
The resolution has bipartisan support and is expected to be voted on in the House by the end of the year, sources said.
