House to Vote on Resolution Declaring Israel ‘Not a Racist or Apartheid State’ Ahead of Israeli President’s Address

The House of Representatives on Tuesday is set to vote on a Republican-sponsored resolution declaring that “the State of Israel is not a racist or apartheid state” ahead of Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s address to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday.

The resolution, introduced by Reps. August Pfluger (R-TX), Max Miller (R-OH) and David Kustoff (D-TN), follows Congressional Progressive Caucus chair Pramila Jayapal’s (D-WA) comments at a political conference on Saturday that Israel was a “racist state.”

“As somebody’s who’s been in the streets and participated in a lot of demonstrations, I want you to know that we have been fighting to make it clear that Israel is a racist state, that the Palestinian people deserve self-determination and autonomy, that the dream of a two-state solution is slipping away from us, that it does not even feel possible,” Jayapal said to protesters who were chanting “free Palestine.”

Jayapal on Sunday issued a clarification that she does “not believe the idea of Israel as a nation is racist” but that she does “believe that [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] 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.”

Jayapal’s remarks have prompted both explicit and implicit criticism from both sides of the aisle.

On Sunday evening after Jayapal revised her comment, the House joint Democratic leadership issued a statement saying that “Israel is not a racist state.”

“As a Jewish and Democratic nation, Israel was founded 75 years ago on the principle of complete equality of social and political rights for all of its citizens irrespective of religion, race or sex, as codified in its Declaration of Independence,” the statement by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), Democratic Whip Katherine Clark (D-MA), Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar (D-CA), and Vice Chair Ted Lieu (D-CA) said, without directly naming or condemning Jayapal.

Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) on Monday said that Jayapal’s comments were part of a pattern of antisemitism within the Democratic caucus.

“This isn’t the first person in the Democratic conference that has continued to make antisemitic comments,” McCarthy told reporters. “There are a number of them over there. I think if the Democrats want to believe that they do not have a conference that continues to make antisemitic remarks, they need to do something about it. Because they’ve defended these individuals time and again. The only time action has ever been taken, is when we had to take the action. I think this is a role for the leader, Hakeem [Jeffries] to prove that no, they’re not antisemitic, and they cannot allow their members to continue to say what they have said in the past.”

McCarthy cited past comments and Congressional resolutions by Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Betty McCollum (D-MN), all of whom have described Israel as an apartheid state.

Speaking on the House floor during debate on the resolution Tuesday, Tlaib said that the resolution was “reaffirming apartheid” and “policing the words of women of color who dare to speak up.”

“Israel’s own President Herzog, who’s going to come before Congress tomorrow, has long advocated against interracial marriages,” Tlaib said. “Did you all know that? Do you care? He said that on a news segment. Look it up. When he came to America he said, ‘I encountered something that I call an actual plague. I saw my friends’ children married and coupled with non-Jewish partners.’ Israel is an apartheid state. The government is deeply problematic in the way that they are proceeding in the structure of oppression.”

Herzog’s comment was about religious intermarriage, not interracial marriage, and he has previously said his remarks were taken out of context and that in Hebrew his use of the word “plague” does not carry a negative connotation.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) on Tuesday urged members of Congress to vote in favor of the resolution, which also includes a rejection of antisemitism and xenophobia and declares that the US will always be a staunch supporter and ally of the Jewish state.

“As Israeli President Isaac Herzog is set to address Congress tomorrow, now is an opportune time for the House to assert the plain truth asserted this week by the Democratic and Republican leadership of the House: Israel is a multireligious, multiracial society in which all its citizens can vote and participate in its democracy as equals,” AIPAC’s CEO Howard Kohr and Policy and Government Affairs Director David Gillette said in a statement. “Israel is not a perfect state. Yet, slanderous attacks on our ally will do nothing to advance American interests.”

Five Democrats, all members of the left-wing “Squad”, have so far said they intend to boycott Herzog’s address: Reps. Omar, Tlaib, Cori Bush (D-MO), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), and Jamaal Bowman (D-NY).

Bowman on Tuesday claimed that his boycott of Herzog, whom Bowman met on a trip to Israel in 2021, “in no way stems from a lack of support for the existence of the State of Israel.”

“On the contrary, it is out of concern that there is no sense of urgency about ensuring the safety and security of all Israelis and Palestinians in the region and finally achieving a two-state solution,” Bowman wrote on Twitter. “This is also an informed decision out of engagement and deep listening to President Herzog, members of parliament, Israeli and Palestinian scholars, and community members in the region who experienced settler violence and dispossession.”

Yehudah Kurtzer, President of the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America, said in response that Bowman’s position on Israel can no longer be excused.

“This person has turned into such a colossal disappointment, in such persistent ways on this issue that what once might have been forgiven as ignorance can now only be understood as malice,” he said.

The Senate version of the resolution was introduced by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK) and 17 fellow Republican Senators.

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