Rashida Tlaib: “Today I’m Thinking of Nelson Mandela.”

Yesterday, Rashida Tlaib delivered this speech on the floor of Congress in support of South Africa’s genocide case against Israel and insisted the US must stop funding the mass slaughter in Gaza.

by Rashida Tlaib, Jacobin

Today, Mr Speaker, South Africa will present its case against the Israeli government at the International Court of Justice. And I ask unanimous consent to insert into the record the case.

It is incredibly powerful to witness people who defeated apartheid in their own country, hold the Israeli apartheid regime accountable for its crime of genocide in Gaza. Today, I’m thinking of Nelson Mandela’s powerful words: “We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.”

In the past three months, Israeli forces have killed over 23,350 Palestinians, including more than 9,600 children. They have injured more than 59,400 Palestinians. More than 8,000 Palestinians are still missing under the rubble.

This week, Secretary of State [Antony] Blinken called the case “meritless.”

So let me read directly from the case file, starting on page fifty-nine, “Expressions of Genocidal Intent against the Palestinian People by Israeli Officials,” so you can hear directly from the Israeli officials in their own words, not mine.