Speaker McCarthy Blocks Rep. Tlaib’s ‘Anti-Israel’ Event on Capitol Hill

Event moved to an alternate location

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) speaks following the passage of the "The Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act," by the House, outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington on April 20, 2023. Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has blocked Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) from hosting a May 10 event on Capitol Hill to commemorate the Nakba, which is how Palestinians label Israel’s Independence Day.

“It’s wrong for members of Congress to traffic in anti-Semitic tropes about Israel. Not only do I condemn Rep. Tlaib’s anti-Israel event on May 10, I am hosting in its place a bipartisan discussion in the U.S. Capitol on the importance of the special relationship between Israel and America,” McCarthy told The Epoch Times in a statement on May 10.

“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,” he continued.

The Epoch Times has reached out to Tlaib’s office for comment.

The Washington Free Beacon first reported on the event and McCarthy’s blocking it.

The event was scheduled to be in the Capitol Visitor Center, where spaces can only be reserved by members of Congress.

Tlaib’s blocked event was meant to commemorate what Palestinians call the Nakba, or “catastrophe,” of Israel’s founding.

“May 15th marks 75 years since the beginning of the Nakba, which means ‘catastrophe.’. Seventy-five years ago, Zionist militias and the new Israeli military violently expelled approximately three-quarters of all Palestinians from their homes and homeland in what became the state of Israel,” stated the invitation.

“To uplift the experiences of Palestinians who underwent the Nakba, and educate Members of Congress and their staff about this history and the ongoing Nakba to which Israel continues to subject Palestinians, we’ve partnered together to host this congressional and community educational event, to be followed immediately afterward by dinner.”

The advocacy groups that organized the event have a reputation for anti-Semitic or anti-Israel sentiment. They include, but are not limited to, Americans for Justice in Palestine Action, U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, Jewish Voice for Peace Action, and Emgage Action.

Jewish and pro-Israel groups condemned the event.

“Bigoted @RepRashida Tlaib has once again chosen anti-Semitism and anti-Israel hate by hosting a congressional event to ’mourn Israel’s founding.’

“Instead of promoting peace, she continues to amplify voices that seek to demonize and delegitimize the Jewish state. Shame on her,” posted B‘nai B’rith International on Twitter.

“Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (D-MI)’s upcoming antisemitic ‘Nakba’ event and latest libels demonstrated that Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan was absolutely correct to recently state that ‘Tlaib’s ignorance and hate towards Jews and Israel know no bounds,’” said Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) President Morton A. Klein in a statement.

Ahead of McCarthy canceling the event, Klein said that the event “promotes 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.”

Anti-Defamation League CEO and National Director Jonathan Greenblatt wrote a May 9 letter to McCarthy expressing concerns about the now-canceled event.

In the end, according to Jewish Insider, Tlaib’s event was held in the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Hearing Room, over which McCarthy does not have jurisdiction.