U.S. Reps. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., and Cori Bush, D-Mo., offered an amendment to a bill in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent aid from going to Israel unless Hamas releases its hostages and a cease-fire was put in place, measures the terror group has repeatedly rejected.
The House Rules Committee refused to consider the measure and House lawmakers on Saturday showed overwhelming bipartisan support for a $26 billion foreign aid bill providing funding for Israel and humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.
The failed amendment called for a lasting cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, the release of hostages held by the terror group and “arbitrarily detained Palestinians” held by Israel as well as diplomacy to secure self-determination for both Palestinians and Israelis.
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However, Hamas has rejected multiple offers of a cease-fire that call for the release of hostages its terrorist fighters have held captive since Oct. 7.
“This bill that passed today is a death warrant. It’s a death warrant on Palestinians,” Bush said Saturday at an anti-Israel rally on Capitol Hill. “It’s a death warrant that says it means that. Apparently, it means that Palestinians are not as valued, that their lives are not as valuable as Israeli lives. And I have to say this. For those that feel that way, shame on you.”
Progressive Democrats have called for the Biden administration to halt aid to Israel over concerns about the fighting in Gaza and the humanitarian crisis unfolding there as well as three death toll of residents in the Hamas-controlled territory.
On Friday, Bush said Congress was fueling genocide rather than saving Palestinian lives. For her part, Tlaib, who has Palestinian roots, has been a vocal critic of Israel even before Oct. 7.
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Fox News Digital has reached out to Tlaib’s office.
Republicans, for the most part, have been united in their support for Israel and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Many critics have accused the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) of committing genocide as it battles Hamas fighters in Gaza. Israeli and U.S. leaders have pushed back against those claims.
“If we don’t move now, if we don’t say cease fire now. So many will die,” Bush said. “So we didn’t have to be at 34,000, plus tens of thousands more under rubble, plus folks dying from starvation. We don’t have to be in a famine right now.:
“We don’t have to have 200,000 buildings decimated and destroyed and whole communities gone and hospitals gone and educational facilities gone,” she added. “We don’t have to be there right now. Yes. We won’t stop fighting for humanity. We won’t stop fighting for every single Palestinian. For every single person in the region. Because they’re taking it even further than Gaza.”
Israel recently carried out limited strikes against Iran in retaliation for a barrage of airstrikes Tehran fired on Israel, the first such direct attack from the Islamic fundamentalist government. No large-scale damage or casualties were reported in either incident.
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