Rashida Tlaib offers anti-Israel/anti-Semitic amendment to reduce foreign influence on US universities

Rashida Tlaib, the Democratic Representative from Michigan, has once again demonstrated her unwavering commitment to the anti-Israel cause by introducing an amendment to the Republican-led DETERRENT Act. 

This legislation is designed to curb the influence of foreign gifts and contracts at American universities, and has been met with Tlaib's insistence that Israel's relationships with these institutions must be subjected to intense scrutiny. 

One can almost hear the echoes of age-old prejudices in her words as she spoke on the House floor, demanding that Israel be added to the "countries of concern" meddling in American academia.

Tlaib, a figure who has made no secret of her disdain for Israel, [and thus, the Jews] had the audacity of dope to claim that the Defending Education Transparency and Ending Rogue Regimes Engaging in Nefarious Transactions (DETERRENT) Act is nothing more than a Republican ploy to "scapegoat" the woes of US higher education on nations like Iran, Qatar, and China. Yet, the act itself, if passed, would sensibly amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to limit contracts with adversarial foreign entities, mandate disclosure of gifts and contracts from foreign actors by faculty and staff, and require transparency regarding certain foreign investments within endowments.

In a moment of breathtaking absurdity, Tlaib declared, "We know that President Trump is the biggest threat to our education system in America right now, not someone in North Korea or China, so please give me a break." 

She then tacked on an amendment to ensure the bill includes "countries whose leaders have active arrest warrants issued against them by the International Criminal Court [ICC]" and "countries actively on trial with the International Court of Justice [ICJ] for violating the Genocide Convention and the Geneva Conventions." 

This, of course, is a thinly veiled attack on Israel, whose Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant face ludicrous ICC arrest warrants for alleged war crimes in Gaza, while South Africa pursues a baseless case at the ICJ accusing Israel of "state-led genocide" in its defensive war against the terrorist group Hamas.

Both American and Israeli leaders have rightly condemned these actions by the ICC and ICJ as groundless and indicative of a deep-seated anti-Israel bias. Yet Tlaib, in her speech, pointed to her colleagues' support for Israel as evidence of their supposed failure in "holding countries with human rights abuses accountable" and their reluctance to "uphold international law." 

The irony is palpable as she accuses her fellow lawmakers of protecting the "Israeli government apartheid regime" by supporting the detainment and arrest of non-citizen college students who protest Israel.

In the 17 months since Hamas's barbaric invasion and massacre across southern Israel on October 7, 2023, Tlaib has unleashed a torrent of vitriol against the Jewish state. As the only Palestinian American woman in Congress, she has repeatedly accused Israel of "genocide" and "ethnic cleansing" in Gaza, as well as causing a famine—claims that fly in the face of the Israeli military's efforts to minimize civilian casualties and facilitate aid to the enclave. 

"This is not about transparency, as it is claimed. It’s truly about destroying freedom of speech," Tlaib asserted, seemingly oblivious to the fact that the DETERRENT Act addresses legitimate concerns over foreign adversaries using financial influence to censor free speech and spread anti-Western propaganda in American universities.

The issue gained urgency in Washington following the October 7 attacks, as campuses became breeding grounds for anti-Zionist [read: anti-Semites] and anti-American protests. Critics have long warned of the lavish financial gifts and investments bestowed upon American universities by countries like Qatar, which harbors high-ranking Hamas leaders living in luxury outside Gaza while severely restricting academic freedom at American schools operating within its borders. 

The legislation also coincides with the Trump administration's efforts to detain and deport non-citizens accused of supporting terrorist groups, such as Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian legal resident from Syria apprehended for supporting Hamas after completing post-graduate studies at Columbia.

Tlaib's outrage over Khalil's arrest led her to pen a letter to Homeland Security's Kristi Noem, demanding that he be "freed from DHS custody immediately." The missive further alleged that Khalil's arrest exemplifies the Trump administration's "anti-Palestinian racism" and accused the White House of attempting to dismantle the "Palestine solidarity movement in this country." 

One might ask whether Tlaib's unwavering support for such figures and her relentless attacks on Israel reveal more about her own biases than those she claims to oppose.

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Hamas praises Ireland's anti-Semitism

The Jew-hating terrorist group Hamas has welcomed Ireland’s decision to formally join South Africa's genocide case against the Jewish State at the oxymoronically named International Court of Justice (ICJ) and called on other countries to follow Ireland's lead.

“We urge all countries to intensify any pressure against the Israeli enemy to stop its brutal attacks on the Palestinian people,” Hamas said in a statement to Lebanon’s Al-Manar TV, according to Iranian state-run media.

The expression of support came after Irish Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Micheal Martin said on Wednesday that he had received the government's approval to intervene in the case against Israel.

"By legally intervening in South Africa's case, Ireland will be asking the ICJ to broaden its interpretation of what constitutes the commission of genocide by a state," Ireland's Foreign Affairs Department said in a statement. "We are concerned that a very narrow interpretation of what constitutes genocide leads to a culture of impunity in which the protection of civilians is minimized."

The statement claimed that there has been "a collective punishment of the Palestinian people through the intent and impact of military actions of Israel," adding, "Ireland's view of the [Genocide Convention] is broader and prioritizes the protection of civilian life."

Martin said last month that the government intended to join South Africa's case at the ICJ before the end of the year. His comment came on the same day that the Irish parliament passed a non-binding motion saying that "genocide is being perpetrated before our eyes by Israel in Gaza."

Since December, South Africa has been pursuing its case at the ICJ, accusing Israel of committing "state-led genocide" in its defensive war against Hamas in Gaza.

In January, the ICJ ruled there was "plausibility" to South Africa's claims that Palestinians had a right to be protected from genocide. However, the top UN court did not make a determination on the merits of South Africa's allegations — which Israel and its allies have described as baseless and may take years to get through the judicial process. Israeli officials have strongly condemned the ICJ proceedings, noting that the Jewish state is targeting terrorists who use civilians as human shields in its military campaign.

Pro-Israel advocates welcomed the ICJ ruling because it did not impose a unilateral ceasefire in Gaza and called for the release of the hostages taken by Hamas last Oct. 7. Rather than declare that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza and order the Jewish state to stop its military campaign in the Palestinian enclave, the court issued a more general directive that Israel must make sure it prevents acts of genocide.

In late October, South Africa filed the bulk of the relevant material to support its allegations.

Ireland has been among Europe's fiercest critics of Israel since Oct. 7 of last year, when Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists invaded the Jewish state from neighboring Gaza. The terrorists murdered 1,200 people, wounded thousands more, and abducted over 250 hostages in their rampage, the deadliest single-day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. Israel responded with an ongoing military campaign in Hamas-ruled Gaza aimed at freeing the hostages and dismantling the terrorist group's military and governing capabilities.

Last month, Ireland accepted the appointment of a full Palestinian ambassador for the first time, confirming that Jilan Wahba Abdalmajid would step up from her current position as Palestinian head of mission to Ireland.

In May, Ireland officially recognized a Palestinian state, prompting outrage in Israel, which described the move as a "reward for terrorism." According to The Irish Times, Ireland is due to have its presence in Ramallah in the West Bank upgraded from a representative office to a full embassy.

Israel's Ambassador in Dublin Dana Erlich said at the time of Ireland's recognition of "Palestine" that Ireland was "not an honest broker" in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

More recently, Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris in October called on the European Union to "review its trade relations" with Israel after the Israeli parliament passed legislation banning the activities in the country of UNRWA, the United Nations agency responsible for Palestinian refugees, because of its ties to Hamas.

Recent anti-Israel actions in Ireland came shortly after the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (Impact-se), an Israeli education watchdog group, released a new report revealing Irish school textbooks have been filled with negative stereotypes and distortions of Israel, Judaism, and Jewish history.

Antisemitism in Ireland has become "blatant and obvious" in the wake of Hamas's Oct. 7 onslaught, according to Alan Shatter, a former member of parliament who served in the Irish cabinet between 2011 and 2014 as Minister for Justice, Equality and Defense.

Shatter told media outlet The Algemeiner in an interview earlier this year that Ireland has "evolved into the most hostile state towards Israel in the entire EU."

Two months ago, an Irish official, Dublin City Councilor Punam Rane, claimed during a council meeting that Jews and Israel control the US economy, arguing that is why Washington, DC does not oppose Israel's war against Hamas.

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