The Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, disrupted an event that was to be held by Palestinian-American Democratic Representative Rashida Tlaib, to commemorate the Palestinian Nakba, forcing her to transfer it to the Senate.
The website of the American newspaper, Politico, said that Tlaib is continuing to hold the occasion to commemorate the displacement of the Palestinians 75 years ago, despite McCarthy’s obstruction. The event was to be held in the room reserved for the Health, Education, Labor and Retirement Committee.
McCarthy announced that he would reserve the room for himself in the House of Representatives, and discuss US-Israeli relations on the anniversary of its establishment, but he failed to do so.
“People should be allowed to meet and discuss and express their opinions and ideas, and we are like this, working with individuals within our group and making sure that they have an opportunity and are heard,” said House Democrats Group Chairman Pete Aguilar.
The American “The Intercept” website indicated that after Israeli bombs destroyed residential buildings in the Gaza Strip, Tlaib submitted a draft resolution to Congress in order to recognize the “continuing Palestinian Nakba and the rights of refugees.” Tlaib’s draft resolution came before the 75th anniversary of the Nakba and the displacement of the Palestinians in 1948.
The draft resolution calls on Congress to “denounce all manifestations of the Nakba that (Israel) is carrying out against the Palestinian people, including the illegal theft of Palestinian lands in the West Bank and Jerusalem, the displacement of Palestinians, the destruction of their homes and forcing them to leave their lands, and the daily brutality and violence that affected civilians on a daily basis as a result of to the practices of the army and settlers.
In addition to commemorating the Nakba, the draft resolution submitted by Taleb calls for preventing the sale of American weapons that are used to destroy Palestinian homes and lands, and for preventing the construction of the American embassy that will be built on Palestinian lands in Jerusalem.
Supporters of the bill include Representatives Betty McCollum, Ilhan Omar, Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, Jamal Bowman and Corey Bush, all of whom signed a copy of the resolution that Tlaib filed last year.
The United States of America is considered the largest financier in the world for Israel, as it approved for the current year 2023 financial aid amounting to 3.3 billion US dollars.
