Rep. Steve Cohen: Here's why I voted to censure my fellow Democrat, Rashida Tlaib

I feel it is important to share why I voted to censure Representative Rashida Tlaib.

My vote was prompted by my conscience and the need to have honest information about what happened on Oct. 7 and what is happening in Gaza now.

This was not a vote I took lightly. I listened to the entire debate on this issue as well as colleagues and constituents before making my decision. In that context, I felt the need to publicly rebuke the spreading of misinformation by a Member of Congress.

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Yes, Gaza needs humanitarian aid

My vote to censure Congresswoman Tlaib was not at all due to her advocacy on behalf of innocent Palestinians. I agree with her that their deaths are heartbreaking and that we desperately need to send humanitarian aid into Gaza.

In fact, I strongly support sending urgent humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip immediately. Congress must pass a package that includes robust humanitarian aid for Palestinians as well as funding for Ukraine and Taiwan, both sovereign nations like Israel fighting for existence.

I have always called for the protection of innocent lives and increased humanitarian aid in Gaza and will continue to do so.

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Blaming Israel, the victim of the Oct. 7 terrorist attack, was wrong

In this terrible time, we must speak carefully.

Instead of condemning the murder of innocent people, carried out in some of the most horrific and dehumanizing ways, Congresswoman Tlaib stated that the horrors we saw unfold in Israel on Oct. 7 were “resistance” to Israeli policies. The murder of innocent civilians is never a legitimate form of resistance and should not be seen as such.

If any Member of Congress had said something similar – blaming the victims or justifying their deaths – after the terrorist attacks on 9/11, I would have voted to censure them as well.

Even after learning that several of her tweets and statements regarding Israel were untrue, Representative Tlaib refused to take them down. She continued to blame Israel for the Oct. 17 bombing of the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital even after U.S. intelligence reports indicated Israel was not to blame. She also grossly mischaracterized the phrase “from the river to the sea,” which Hamas, a known terrorist organization, uses to describe its aspirations to remove Israel from the map and Jews along with it.

The New York Times front page headline on November 9 made its intentions clear: “Hamas’s Goal for Oct. 7: A Permanent State of War.”

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Criticism of the Israeli government is not the issue. It’s the disinformation

I have no issue with legitimate criticism of the Israeli Government and have expressed my own concern with Prime Minister Netanyahu’s Likud party and far-right ruling coalition.

I boycotted Netanyahu’s speech to a joint session of Congress in 2015 because of his past actions that I didn’t believe contributed to peace in the Middle East.

I was disappointed to see this from my colleague while disinformation regarding the Israel-Hamas war runs rampant. I believe we all have a responsibility to hold each other accountable and for that reason, I voted in favor of the resolution censuring Representative Tlaib.

Congressman Steve Cohen, D-Memphis, represents Tennessee’s 9^th Congressional District.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Rashida Tlaib spread misinformation. That's why I voted to censure her