Squad's Tlaib end runs McCarthy, holds anti-Israel event in Senate with 'HELP' from Bernie Sanders

Democrat Rep. Rashida Tlaib is trying to end run the leader of her chamber, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, by holding an anti-Israel event on the Senate side of the U.S. Capitol after McCarthy nixed her original plan.  

McCarthy said Tuesday he reserved the space in the U.S. Capitol building where Tlaib planned to host her May 15 event. 

On Wednesday, Tlaib said the event – Nakba – would still take place, but in a room for the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, for which Sen. Bernie Sanders, an Independent and self-proclaimed democratic socialist, is the chairman.

Nakba means "catastrophe," a Palestinian term used for the founding of Israel in 1948.

Palestinians mark Nakba Day each year on May 15.

McCarthy said he would host an event in the Capitol Visitor Center celebrating 75 years of US-Israeli ties that Tlaib originally reserved.

"It’s wrong for members of Congress to traffic in anti-Semitic tropes about Israel," he said. "As long as I’m speaker, we are going to support Israel’s right to self-determination and self-defense, unequivocally and in a bipartisan fashion."

Tlaib is a Michigan congresswoman and a Muslim.

She is the the only member of Congress who opposes Israel’s self-definition as a Jewish state, according to the Israel Times. 

Sen. Bill Cassidy, the top Republican on the HELP committee, says he was not consulted about holding the event in a committee room and that he does not support the event.

"I wholeheartedly disapprove of the [chamber's Democrat] majority permitting the use of the HELP Committee room for this divisive event,"  "The Capitol Grounds should not be used as a pedestal to legitimize anti-Semitic bigotry."

Madeleine Hubbard is an international correspondent for Just the News. Follow her on Twitter or Instagram.