Ohio Rep. Greg Landsman Votes to Censure Rep. Rashida Tlaib- A Statement from Cincinnati Socialists

Representatives Cori Bush and Rashida Tlaib attend a candlelight vigil at the US Capitol to commemorate victims of the October 7 Hamas attacks in Israel. (Drew Angerer / Getty)

Last week, Democratic Ohio Representative and former Cincinnati City Councilperson Greg Landsman voted, along with 21 other Democrats, to censure Rep. Rashida Tlaib for speaking out against the ongoing Israeli genocide of the Palestinians. Tlaib is the only Palestinian-American serving in Congress and has family living in the West Bank. The censure resolution was in response to Tlaib posting a video with the phrase “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” as well as pointing out that the violent colonial occupation of Palestine “lead[s] to resistance.” It is claimed by those who censured Tlaib that the phrase “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” “is widely recognized as a genocidal call to violence to destroy the state of Israel and its people.” This lie deliberately obscures the colonial character of the Israeli state. 

This is one of numerous attempts by the bourgeois state to misrepresent Palestinian resistance to colonization as a religious conflict caused by anti-semitism. In fact, the resistance to Israeli occupation has historically been driven largely by secular organizations, such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Palestinian Liberation Organization, and others. Even the internal character of the Israeli state was largely secular Zionist until the past decade and a half or so, when right-wing nationalist leaders like Benjamin Netanyahu began to overtly court ultra-Orthodox and Kahanist figures like Itamar Ben-Gvir and his Otzma Yehudit party. Indeed, Otzma Yehudit now wields far more power than its predecessor Kach (a proscribed fascist terrorist organization) ever did. This is not to imply that secular Zionism is somehow a better alternative than religious Zionism, it is merely to point out that land, not religion, has and will be the defining factor in this liberation struggle.

It is all too ironic that Rep. Tlaib was censured for condemning the genocidal settler-colonial project of Zionism, only to be accused of supporting genocide by those who are responsible for funding the ongoing ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians. Is this not the pot calling the kettle black? Compare this to Republican Ohio Rep. Max Miller’s comments just weeks ago: “[Palestine is] a territory that's about to probably get eviscerated and go away shortly, as we’re going to turn it into a parking lot”(!). These openly genocidal comments were not met with any disciplinary action by Congress. 

Rep. Tlaib has never said anything so explicitly violent, yet she is the one who is censured. In reality, the House voted to censure Rep. Tlaib because she condemns the Zionist occupation of Palestine by the State of Israel, the colonial roots of which can be traced back to the 1917 Balfour Declaration. 

This document, written by British Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour, states:

“His Majesty's Government view with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object.”

This document, written on behalf of the colonial British government, serves as the foundation for the violent displacement of Palestinians that began with the Nakba in 1947 and continues in 2023 with the help of then British, now US, forces and aid. 

We condemn Rep. Landsman, and all other members of the House who voted to censure Rep. Tlaib for acknowledging her own people’s right to self-determination. We support the right of the Palestinians to self-determination, and the end of colonial Zionist occupation “from the river, to the sea”. We call on the US government to end all funding to the State of Israel. 

We echo Lenin's words: “The proletariat must demand the right of political secession for the colonies and for the nations that ‘its own’ nation oppresses. Unless it does this, proletarian internationalism will remain a meaningless phrase.” We call on all working and oppressed people to stand in solidarity with the Palestinians who are fighting for their liberation. 

Free, free Palestine!