Rashida Tlaib, the first Palestinian congresswoman, made a change to the map of her congressional office in Washington, DC, replacing Israel with Palestine.
After Tlaib, a Democrat from Michigan, swore in front of Congress last Thursday, a BuzzFeed reporter, who was touring the congresswoman’s new office, noticed a “slight change” on the map hung on the wall.
One of the pictures posted by the reporter on Twitter revealed that someone, perhaps not Tlaib herself, placed a sticker, with the word Palestine on it, near the location of Israel on the map and accompanied it by an arrow directed to the occupation state’s spot.
Tlaib began her mission in the US Congress by promising to start working on the process of sacking President Donald Trump, who she referred to using an offensive word. Thus, the Republicans were raged over such statement less than a day after the initiation of US Congress’s sessions with a Democrat majority.
In an interview with the congresswoman, after her swearing-in last Thursday, Tlaib said: “And when your son looks at you and says, ‘Momma, look, you won. Bullies don’t win.’ And I say, ‘Baby, they don’t.’ Because we’re gonna go in there and we’re gonna impeach the mother***er,” in reference to Trump, who replied: “How can you begin with impeaching a president who may have won the greatest elections in the US history, made no mistake, and scored the best performance in the first two years compared to all other presidents?”
I used my own *personal Quran* that my best friend of 25 years gifted me to use for the ceremonial swear in (basically a photo with Speaker Pelosi).
*Note: I did not use Jefferson's Quran as reported. I wanted it to be more personal (and my own). pic.twitter.com/DRTn3EuB8y
— Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) January 6, 2019
Tlaib’s remarks drew sharp criticism, with some saying that the use of such language poisons dialogue and might prompt some other politicians to use the same degrading expressions.
The Republicans attacked Tlaib’s statement, calling on Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, to condemn the Democrat MP’s remarks.
Some Democrat MPs have sought to elude from Tlaib’s words. Democrat senator, Joseph Manchin, described Tlaib’s remarks as “disgusting,” and apologized to all members of the US Congress as well as to the American people for the language used by his fellow congresswoman.
On the other hand, Democrat MP, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, defended Tlaib by criticizing the Republican Party. Thus, Pelosi sought to alleviate the situation, noting: “I did not like the language congresswoman Tlaib used, but it is not worse than Trump’s.”
