Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) announced on Twitter that he has canceled Representative Rashida Tlaib’s (D-MI) Nakba Day event scheduled for May 10 at the Capitol Visitor Center.
McCarthy tweeted on May 9 that in place of the Nakba Day event, he “will host a bipartisan discussion to honor the 75th anniversary of the US-Israel relationship.” McCarthy further told The Washington Free Beacon, “It’s wrong for members of Congress to traffic in anti-Semitic tropes about Israel. As long as I’m Speaker, we are going to support Israel’s right to self-determination and self-defense, unequivocally and in a bipartisan fashion.”
The event was organized by several anti-Israel groups and while Tlaib listed as a guest on the event page, reserving an event at the Visitor Center can only be done by a sitting member of Congress. The “nakba,” Arabic for “catastrophe,” is the Palestinian narrative of the establishment of Israel and the ensuing War for Independence in 1948.
McCarthy received plaudits on Twitter from elected officials and Jewish groups for nixing the event.
“Thank you, @SpeakerMcCarthy,” Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) tweeted. “Every member of Congress should immediately condemn this disgusting antisemitism. We need to send a message: the United States will always stand with Israel.”
Thank you, @SpeakerMcCarthy.
Every member of Congress should immediately condemn this disgusting antisemitism. We need to send a message: the United States will always stand with Israel. https://t.co/kzd8AE6nZh
— Rick Scott (@SenRickScott) May 10, 2023
“Thank you @SpeakerMcCarthy for putting an end to this anti-Semitic event at the US Capitol and for recognizing the important relationship between The US and Israel — 75 years strong,” Representative Mike Lawler (R-NY) similarly tweeted.
Thank you @SpeakerMcCarthy for putting an end to this anti-Semitic event at the US Capitol and for recognizing the important relationship between The US and Israel — 75 years strong. https://t.co/IfoCN81jH1
— Congressman Mike Lawler (@RepMikeLawler) May 10, 2023
Stop Antisemitism tweeted to McCarthy, “Thank you for standing up to Tlaib’s ongoing hate campaigns against the world’s only Jewish nation. Enough is enough!”
Thank you for standing up to Tlaib's ongoing hate campaigns against the world's only Jewish nation. Enough is enough!
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) May 10, 2023
Judea Pearl, chancellor professor of computer science at UCLA, National Academy of Sciences member and Daniel Pearl Foundation president, tweeted that McCarthy’s move was a “wise decision” but noted that “it deprive[d] @RashidaTlaib from reaffirming in public what pro-coexistence folks have been claiming for years: Palestinians cannot depict a future that does not entail the demise of their neighbors.”
A wise decision by @SpeakerMcCarthy, but it deprive @RashidaTlaib from reaffirming in public what pro-coexistence folks have been claiming for years: Palestinians cannot depict a
future that does not entail the demise of their neighbors. @JGreenblattADL @DavidSuissaJJ @Ostrov_A https://t.co/7qs1DY4Llh— Judea Pearl (@yudapearl) May 10, 2023
Elan Carr, former Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism, tweeted: “Thank you, Mr. @SpeakerMcCarthy, for reaffirming that the U.S. Capitol is a place of philosemitism, not antisemitism.”
Thank you, Mr. @SpeakerMcCarthy, for reaffirming that the U.S. Capitol is a place of philosemitism, not antisemitism. https://t.co/idCHhZzaki
— Elan Carr (@ElanSCarr) May 10, 2023
Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) President Morton A. Klein said in a statement that “Tlaib’s frequent vicious libels of Jews and Israel render her unfit to serve in the U.S. Congress or on any House committee” and the Nakba Day event would have promulgated “the sick, twisted, hateful, genocidal concept that it is a ‘catastrophe’ that Israel has managed to survive, and that the Arabs failed to totally annihilate Israel’s Jewish population and homeland in 1948 or in the 75 years since then.”
