House Speaker McCarthy Prevents Nakba Event in Congress | Israel Hayom

A second failure for Congresswoman Rashida Talib in an attempt to bring the Nakba claims into the US Congress: House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday prevented an attempt by Talib to hold a Nakba event at the Congressional Visitors Center.

Kevin McCarthy in the Knesset | Yoni Rikner

Talib planned to hold the gathering on Thursday in one of the main halls of the Capitol, along with leading BDS groups. But this was learned by McCarthy, who only last week visited Israel at the head of a pro-Israel delegation, following a request from a Jewish organization. In response, McCarthy ordered that the meeting not be held, and instead hold a special, bipartisan discussion in honor of Israel's 75th Independence Day.

This is Talib's second failure to bring the Nakba into Congress. Last year it initiated a declarative resolution recognizing the Nakba, but it was met with a stinging defeat. It appears that she and her partners will settle for a parade they are holding outside the congressional building on Capitol Hill this year. It should be noted that among those who took part in her initiative was the Jewish Voice for Peace organization.

Rashida Talib and the Palestinian flag at Congress, photo: Twitter

Those who came to Israel's defense and brought about a halt to the incident were rabbis who were members of the Coalition for Jewish Values. In a joint appeal to McCarthy and other senior congressional officials, they wrote that "what they call the Nakba is the attempt by the Arab states to do to the Jews in the Holy Land what Hitler had done a few years earlier to the Jews in Europe.

"Their egalitarian goal failed. 6,000 Jews were killed, a third of them women and civilians. We present to you a bipartisan request to prevent the event, initiated by a congresswoman who called Israel an 'apartheid state,'" Rabbis Yoel Schonfeld and Yaakov Menken wrote to senior congressional officials.

In response, McCarthy ordered the meeting canceled. The U.S. official told the Privicon website, "It is a mistake for members of Congress to trade anti-Semites. As long as I am chairman, we will support Israel's right to self-determination and self-defense, unequivocally and bipartisanly." McCarthy told Israel Hayom last week that President Biden will not invite Netanyahu to the White House anytime soon, he will.

BDS activists demonstrate in the US (archive), photo: GettyImages

MK Dan Illouz (Likud) thanked the Speaker of the House of Representatives and said: "Thank you for your support and steadfastness on the side of the State of Israel. It is precisely at such moments that we see who our strongest allies are. You are a true friend of Israel."

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