WASHINGTON — Nine House Democrats voted against a resolution on Tuesday that declares Israel is “not a racist and apartheid state” and condemns antisemitism.
The resolution, which passed with overwhelming bipartisan support, drew criticism for conflating antisemitism with disapproval of the Israeli government. The resolution also forced some progressive Democrats into a vote where they would either be perceived as refusing to condemn antisemitism or contradicting past criticisms of Israel’s human rights record.
The resolution passed 412-9, with one lawmaker voting “present.” Broad Democratic support for the resolution was never in doubt.
“I expect a large number of Democrats to vote for it,” Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., chair of the House Democratic Caucus told reporters earlier on Tuesday. “I’ll be voting for it, it’s a pretty simple resolution.”
Republican leaders decided to bring the resolution to the House floor after several progressive Democrats announced they would boycott Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s joint address to Congress on Wednesday, and Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., said Saturday that “Israel is a racist state.”
Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, tweeted last week that “there is no way in hell” she will attend Herzog’s address. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., Cori Bush, D-Mo., and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., said they will join Omar in boycotting Herzog’s address.
Jayapal attempted to walk back her comments after they drew fierce criticism from both Republicans and members of her own party. Jayapal wrote in a press release on Sunday that she does not “believe the idea of Israel as a nation is racist.”
“I do, however, believe that Netanyahu’s extreme right-wing government has engaged in discriminatory and outright racist policies and that there are extreme racists driving that policy within the leadership of the current government,” she said, referencing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
House Democratic leadership, without mentioning Jayapal by name, released a joint statement on Sunday about U.S.-Israel relations and said “Israel is not a racist state.”
The resolution allowed Republicans to shine a light on disagreements among House Democrats over support for Israel and its current government led by Netanyahu. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., has called on Democrats to remove Jayapal from her role as chair of the Progressive Caucus over her comments on Israel.
While the resolution declared Israel is not an “apartheid state,” several human rights organizations have claimed the Israeli government is enforcing apartheid against Palestinians. Last year, Amnesty International joined Human Rights Watch and Israeli rights group B’Tselem after it published a report that claimed Israel’s treatment of Palestinians meets the international definition of apartheid.
Ken Roth, who spent nearly three decades as the executive director of Human Rights Watch, told USA TODAY the House resolution “attacks a red herring.”
“The human rights groups that have examined the issue do not call Israel an ‘apartheid state’ but uniformly agree that the Israeli government is committing the crime against humanity of apartheid,” Roth wrote.
Roth, a staunch critic of Israel’s human rights record, also warned the resolution “strays into dangerous territory” by attempting to combine criticism of Israel with antisemitism.
“Antisemitism is a scourge that should be fought, but to wrongly suggest that criticism of the Israeli government’s repressive practices is antisemitism cheapens the important concept of antisemitism and makes Jews in America and around the world more vulnerable to it,” Roth said.
