Tlaib accuses Biden of supporting genocide against Palestinians
U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib posted a video accusing President Joe Biden of supporting genocide against Palestinians.
U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib on Friday accused President Joe Biden of backing a Palestinian genocide, an extraordinary attack on the leader of her own party as an election year nears.
Tlaib, a Michigan Democrat who is the only Palestinian American in Congress, made the charge in a 90-second video posted on X Friday afternoon that shows images of children injured by bombings in the Gaza Strip and mass pro-Palestinian rallies in various states chanting “from the river to the sea.” It came two days after the House rejected an effort by right-wing Republicans to censure Tlaib for antisemitism, and as pro-Israel groups have promised to pour money into a primary challenge against her.
“Mr. President, the American people are not with you on this one,” Tlaib says to the camera. “We will remember in 2024.” The video ends with a series of black cards with the words: “Joe Biden supported the genocide of the Palestinian people. The American people won’t forget. Biden, support a cease-fire now. Or don’t count on us in 2024.”
Tlaib’s tweet of the video had been viewed 2.3 million times by 7 a.m. Saturday morning.
The video was posted as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rebuffed calls from President Biden and Secretary of State Anthony Blinken for a humanitarian pause in the fighting to allow civilians in Gaza to move toward safety and to bring food, water and medical supplies into the battered coastal enclave. The Gaza health ministry says more than 9,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed and 1.5 million displaced since the war began Oct. 7 with a Hamas terror attack on Israel that killed 1,400 people and injured thousands.
Netanyahu said that Israel would only consider a pause in exchange for the release of the more than 200 hostages Hamas is believed to be holding in Gaza. “I have made clear that we are continuing forcefully and that Israel refuses a temporary cease-fire that does not include the release of our hostages,” the prime minister said.
Blinken headed to Amman, where he planned to meet Saturday with leaders from Jordan, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia. Those countries have called for a cease-fire, but all efforts at diplomacy are complicated by the role of Hamas, which the U.S. and many other countries classify as a terrorist organization but which also functionally governs Gaza.
For example, The New York Times reported that a Biden administration official had told reporters that Hamas had tried to sneak some of its fighters out of Gaza through its southern Rafah crossing into Egypt under a deal brokered to allow the evacuation of foreign nationals and injured Palestinian civilians.
A State Department spokesman said that Blinken had thanked the Lebanese prime minister for “preventing Lebanon from being pulled into a war that the Lebanese people do not want.” The Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah has been trading light fire with Israel since the onset of the war, and the group’s leader said this week that it was supporting Hamas by forcing Israel to deploy troops to the northern front as well as the south.
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza also reported Saturday that a dozen people had been killed in a strike on a school in the Jabaliya refugee camp that had been serving as a shelter for evacuees. Jabaliya has been the subject of intense bombing for the last several days.
Meanwhile, the war and its aftermath continued to see repercussions reverberate throughout the United States. Cornell University, where a mentally ill engineering student was arrested earlier this week for posting threats against Jews on an internal network, canceled all classes on Friday to give the community a respite. And The New York Times announced that an award-winning writer and editor for its magazine had resigned after violating the publication’s policies against public political protest activity.
Jazmine Hughes, who had previously sparked controversy for signing a letter criticizing Times coverage of transgender issues, had signed an online petition by Writers Against the War in Gaza that accuses Israel of genocide.
“While I respect that she has strong convictions, this was a clear violation of The Times’s policy on public protest,” Jake Silverstein, editor of the magazine, said in a staff email on Friday. “This policy, which I fully support, is an important part of our commitment to independence.”
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