Michigan Democratic AG demands Tlaib retract defense of antisemitic 'from the river to the sea'

Michigan Democratic Attorney General Dana Nessel is demanding that Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., retract her statement defending the phrase "from the river to the sea" as an "aspirational call for freedom," even as multiple major U.S. Jewish groups say the phrase is "antisemitic" and alludes to a genocide of Jews.

The disagreement began Friday when Tlaib wrote on X, formerly Twitter: "From the river to the sea is an aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence, not death, destruction, or hate. My work and advocacy is always centered in justice and dignity for all people no matter faith or ethnicity."

The phrase "from the river to the sea" rejects a two-state solution and instead calls for the dismantling of Israel and the establishment of a Palestinian state spanning from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, which is where Israel is currently located. 

Jewish organizations including the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee have called the phrase antisemitic. 

"The chant means that the entire land of Israel will be ethnically cleansed of the Jewish population, and the Palestinian people would live there instead," according to Aish, one of the world's top Orthodox Jewish education groups.

Nessel, who is Jewish, responded to Tlaib's comments on Saturday evening.

"I have supported and defended you countless times, even when you have said the indefensible, because I believed you to be a good person whose heart was in the right place," she wrote on X. "But this is so hurtful to so many. Please retract this cruel and hateful remark."

Tlaib has remained silent on X since her post. Tlaib, who is Palestinian, has been calling for a ceasefire. 

Follow Madeleine Hubbard on X or Instagram.