On April 16, 44 members of the House of Representatives voted against a resolution stating that the slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” is antisemitic and condemnable.
Rep. Anthony D'Esposito (R-N.Y.) introduced the resolution, which passed 377–44, with one member, Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.), voting “present.”
The resolution states that the phrase is a call for “the eradication of the State of Israel, which is located between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea,” and ”seeks to deny Jewish people the right to self-determination and calls for the removal of the Jewish people from their ancestral homeland.”
The resolution comes amid the rise in antisemitism since Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel—the largest single-day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.
In explaining her “present” vote, Ms. Dean said she denounced the phrase but said that the resolution was a political game by the GOP.
