U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) has drawn criticism for a video she posted over the weekend that some saw as offensive to the Jewish community, but she said her critics should focus less on the words she said she then used to save people. civilian lives in the Middle East.

My colleagues are far more focused on silencing me, the only Palestinian American voice in Congress, than on ending the horrific attacks on civilians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank right now, Tlaib said in a statement which was sent on Monday to

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he Associated Press. “Instead of attacking me and twisting my words, they should listen to their constituents and call for a ceasefire to save innocent lives.

She responded to calls from national and Michigan Democrats asking her to remove a video posted Friday

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includes a clip of protesters singing from the river to the sea. Tlaib also said in the video that we will remember in 2024 before the text appears saying: Joe Biden supported the genocide of the Palestinian people.

It’s the latest example of a public divide among Democrats in Michigan, home to one of the nation’s largest Arab-American communities.

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The Anti-Defamation League and other Jewish groups have criticized the river’s route to the sea

,

singing as a call to dismantle the state of Israel. Many Palestinian activists say they are not calling for the destruction of Israel, but for freedom of movement and equal rights and protection for Palestinians across the country.

Democrat Elissa Slotkin, the only Jewish member of Michigan’s congressional delegation, said on social media that the phrase promotes division and violence and is counterproductive to promoting peace.

If I knew a phrase I used had hurt any of my constituents, I would apologize and retract it, regardless of its origin, Slotkin said. I would ask the same of you.

Other Michigan Democrats, including Att

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Dana Nessel and Michigan Senate President Pro Tempore Jeremy Moss criticized Tlaib and called on her to apologize. Nessel said that while she has defended Tlaib in the past, her use of the phrase is so hurtful to many.

Vermont

Senator Bernie Sanders

(I-Vt.)

said during a Sunday appearance on CNN that while he considers Tlaib a friend, slogans like the river to the sea: if that means the destruction of Israel, that won’t work.

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Tlaib said on social media late Friday that the expression from the river to the sea is an ambitious call for freedom, human rights and peaceful coexistence, and not for death, destruction or hatred.

The back-and-forth between Democrats in Michigan is the latest example of a growing rift over the war between Israel and Hamas. Michigan is home to one of the largest Arab-American communities in the country.

what a constituency that is

Tlaib represents in part, but her Detroit-area district also includes a thriving Jewish community.

Tlaib, whose grandmother currently lives in the West Bank, has been called out since the start of the war by someone who said she had not done enough to condemn the Hamas attack. An attempt to censure Tlaib was rejected last week with broad bipartisan support, as both sides expressed concerns about violating the law’s rules.

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Two Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, reintroduced a motion Monday to censure Tlaib.

Associated Press writer Farnoush Amiri in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.