Far-left Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) was the only member of the House who declined to vote Wednesday for a resolution condemning the rape and sexual violence that Hamas leaders ordered members of the terror group to carry out during and after its monstrous Oct. 7 attack in Israel.
The House voted 418-0 to pass the resolution, led by Rep. Lois Frankel (D-Fla.), which calls on other nations to criminalize rape and sexual assault and hold its perpetrators accountable, as well as on international bodies to unequivocally condemn the “barbaric” acts.
A spokesman for Tlaib did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Hamas killed more than 1,200 people — including 33 American citizens — during its attack, and took another 240 hostage back to the Gaza Strip.
Many of the murdered female victims were also subjected to rape and sexual violence, the resolution notes, which describes the heinous acts as “weapons of war around the world to terrorize and subvert populations.”
Eyewitness testimonies, photographic evidence and forensic medical units have corroborated horrific details about the female victims of gang rape and genital mutilation that took place at the Nova music festival in Re’im on Oct. 7.
Bodies inspected by medical units and morgue workers were confirmed to have suffered trauma — with some having shattered pelvises.
Released Israeli hostages have reported instances of sexual assault and abuse while in captivity.
Amid the ongoing war in Gaza, Israeli security forces have obtained confessions from captured Hamas terrorists who say their leaders urged them to commit acts of sexual violence.
The Jewish state has also led investigations into the matter with the help of human rights lawyers and criminologists who have corroborated the reports.
It further faults international bodies — such as the United Nations — for being “slow to condemn” the “brutal actions” of the jihadists.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken echoed that charge in a December interview with CNN, saying the sexual attacks were “beyond anything that I’ve ever seen” and “international organizations were so slow to focus on this.”
“The atrocities that we saw on Oct. 7 are almost beyond description or beyond our capacity to digest,” Blinkenn told CNN’s Jake Tapper.
“And we’ve talked about them before, but the sexual violence that we saw on Oct. 7 is beyond anything that I’ve ever seen, either.”
The resolution also affirms support for subsequent independent investigations into the matter — something that Tlaib had requested following the bombing of the Al Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City after disputing both Israeli and US intelligence findings that it was perpetrated by terrorists.
In November, the House censured Tlaib for having “defended the brutal rapes, murders, beheadings, and kidnapping — including of Americans — by Hamas as justified ‘resistance’” within 24 hours of the attack.
Only 22 Democrats voted in support of that Republican-led resolution.
Tlaib, a Palestinian American and member of the progressive “Squad,” received the rebuke for promoting “false narratives” about the war on her social media account and posting the phrase “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
The phrase, which is often chanted at anti-Israel protests, is widely understood as a call for the eradication of Israel, which the censure resolution notes she later “doubled down” on in the wake of the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust.
In response, Tlaib called the phrase “an aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence, not death, destruction, or hate.”
Congressional Progressive Caucus chairwoman Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) also caught flak last December for remarking that there should be more “balanced” criticism of both sides in the Israel-Hamas war, when asked about progressives’ silence in the face of the reports about rape and sexual violence.
“I said it’s horrific and I think that rape is horrific. Sexual assault is horrific. I think that it happens in war situations, terrorist organizations like Hamas obviously are using these as tools,” Jayapal said.
“However, I think we have to be balanced about bringing in the outrages against Palestinians,” she added, referencing the mounting death toll of 15,000 Palestinians in Gaza.
