House members led by Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., introduced a resolution Monday calling for US recognition of the Palestinian "Nakba," a term meaning "catastrophe" that is typically used by Palestinians to refer to the establishment of the state of Israel.
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Tlaib said she introduced the resolution in the US House of Representatives on Monday, a day after Palestinians marked the Nakba's 74th anniversary.
"Today, I introduced a resolution recognizing the Nakba (catastrophe), where 400 Palestinian towns and villages were destroyed, over 700,000 Palestinians uprooted from their homes, and made refugees," Tlaib, who is of Palestinian descent, wrote on Twitter.
Today, I introduced a resolution recognizing the Nakba (catastrophe), where 400 Palestinian towns and villages were destroyed, over 700,000 Palestinians uprooted from their homes, and made refugees.
— Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (@RepRashida) May 16, 2022
"The Nakba is well-documented and continues to play out today. We must acknowledge that the humanity of Palestinians is being denied when folks refuse to acknowledge the war crimes and human rights violations in apartheid Israel," she continued.
Tlaib went on to thank the co-sponsors of the resolution, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rep. Ilhan Omar, Rep. Cori Bush, Rep. Jamaal Bowman, Rep. Betty McCollum and Rep. Marie Newman. Along with Tlaib, the first four co-sponsors are members of what is known as "The Squad" – six relatively young democratic US House representatives. The sixth "squad" member, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, was not a co-signer.
The resolution claims that Palestinians opposed the UN's 1947 recommendation to partition the territory then known as Palestine into two states, one for Arabs and one for Jews. It states that prior to Israel declaring independence on May 14, 1948, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians had fled their homes "often after attacks by Zionist militias." It does not make reference to the use of some of those areas by invading Arab nations to attack Israel.
The resolution also characterizes the conflict differently than the US State Department's Office of the Historian, which states that after the UN resolution, "[f]ighting began with attacks by irregular bands of Palestinian Arabs… against Jewish cities, settlements and armed forces."
Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) reacted angrily to the resolution, tweeting: "Israel is our great ally & the continued anti-Semitism from radical socialists in the House is horrific. These are @SpeakerPelosi's Democrat members. Does she agree with them? If not, she must immediately condemn this."
Israel is our great ally & the continued anti-Semitism from radical socialists in the House is horrific. These are @SpeakerPelosi's Democrat members. Does she agree with them? If not, she must immediately condemn this. https://t.co/ctokHJexh3
— Rick Scott (@SenRickScott) May 17, 2022
The US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, an advocacy group, hailed the measure, saying, "For far too long, the Palestinian experience has been ignored by Washington, and Palestinians have been gas-lit for trying to tell their story. We must shift US foreign policy away from enabling Israel's ongoing displacement of Palestinians with military funding – and toward accountability."
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