Might excusing genocide be considered hate speech?

Progressive hero justifies October 7

Our progressive … acquaintances have their own dog whistles. One of which is “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” 

That’s code for Kill the Jews.

Unless she is stupid, Rashida Tlaib, D-Michigan, knows that. So does a writer who describes herself as the highest ranking Arab-American in the Obama administration; she writes:

As Tlaib knows, many Israelis, Jewish Americans, and others hear the slogan as calling for extending a Palestinian state from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, presumably by killing or deporting the people now living in Israel. 

— The Atlantic magazine, “Rashida Tlaib’s inflammatory language”

If there’s any doubt, Hamas uses the term in its 2017 constitution. “It specifies geographic coordinates for future violence,” adds Juliette Kayyem in The Atlantic.

The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday 11-7-23 voted 234-188 to censure Rep. Tlaib for “promoting false narratives” after Hamas’ October 7 attack. Notably, 22 Democrats agreed that Tlaib had crossed a line. But not Tlaib’s fellow Progressive Caucus ally, Mark Pocan, who represents Madison WI’s Second District, or Milwaukee Rep. Gwenn Moore. Nor a single member of “The Squad,” including AOC, Ilhan Omar, Cori Bush, Jamaal Bowman, Ayanna Pressley, Summer Lee, or Greg Casar. All members in the Progressive Caucus formerly chaired by Rep. Pocan.

The censure resolution says that Rep. Tlaib, “within 24 hours of the October 7 barbaric attack on Jewish citizens … defended the brutal rapes, murders, be-headings, and kidnapping — including of Americans — by Hamas as justified ‘’resistance’ to the ‘’apartheid state.’ Tlaib also “knowingly spread the false narrative that Israel intentionally bombed the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital.”

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To be fair (an occasional notion here at the Werkes), Rep. Pocan on 10-7-23, issued this statement: “I condemn the heinous attacks by Hamas on Israel. Any hostages should be released immediately and the violence must end.” But a few days later he called for a ceasefire: “While the violent attack by Hamas on the Israeli people was brutal, it has lessened, and the retaliation by Israel toward Hamas is in full swing.”

Hamas’ attacks on Jews ‘has lessened.'(!!!) The Israeli Defense Forces may have had something to do with that, Mark.

→ Try THIS in Gaza! U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan introduces bills to create National Museum of American LGBTQI+ History and Culture. In Washington DC.

Blaska’s Bottom Line: The issue is not First Amendment free speech. Rashida Tlaib has a right to say what she believes — as do her colleagues by expressing their disgust through the censure motion.

Why can’t Mark Pocan?