Rep. Sara Jacobs, D-Calif., moved on Monday to force a vote on a resolution to censure Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla., over his \u2018incredibly dangerous and dehumanizing\u2019 comments conflating Palestinian civilians in Gaza with Hamas terrorists.<\/p>\n
Jacobs filed her censure measure as a privileged resolution Monday, forcing House leadership to either bring the resolution to the floor for a vote or to table the resolution within two legislative days.<\/p>\n
\u2018Innocent civilians shouldn\u2019t be punished for the actions of their governments \u2013 and they\u2019re certainly not responsible for the actions of terrorists. That applies to Palestinians in Gaza and civilians around the world,\u2019 Jacobs said in a statement. \u2018Rep. Brian Mast\u2019s comments are incredibly dangerous and dehumanizing as we continue to push for humanitarian aid to reach Palestinians in harm\u2019s way in Gaza and as Islamophobic hate crimes rise.\u2019<\/p>\n
In moving to file her privileged resolution, Jacobs said on the House floor that Mast had been \u2018conflating innocent Palestinian civilians with Hamas,\u2019 citing several statements from Mast in which she says the Florida Republican has failed to differentiate Palestinian civilians from Hamas in the wake of the terror group\u2019s attack against Israel.<\/p>\n
Mast \u2018has repeatedly made inflammatory statements regarding innocent Palestinian civilians in Gaza who are in harm\u2019s way through no fault of their own as a result of horrific terrorist attacks conducted by Hamas on October 7, 2023,\u2019 Jacobs said in her resolution\u2019s introduction.<\/p>\n
Jacobs also said Mast\u2019s \u2018refusal to distinguish innocent Palestinians from Hamas terrorists is false, misleading, dehumanizing, dangerous and unbecoming of a member of Congress.\u2019<\/p>\n
More than 10,000 people have been killed in Gaza and Israel since Hamas\u00a0launched its\u00a0largest attack\u00a0against Israel in decades on Oct. 7, prompting\u00a0military response from Israeli forces. Thousands more have been wounded, and many others have been taken hostage by Hamas and raped, tortured and murdered.<\/p>\n
Mast, a staunch supporter of Israel who previously wore his Israeli military uniform at the Capitol last month following Hamas\u2019 attack, said in a House floor speech last week that \u2018there are very few innocent Palestinian citizens,\u2019 according to a statement Jacobs cited in her resolution. The Republican congressman previously served as a volunteer with the Israel Defense Forces.<\/p>\n
\u2018I would encourage the other side to not so lightly throw around the idea of innocent Palestinian civilians, as frequently said,\u2019 Mast said at the time. \u2018I don\u2019t think we would so lightly throw around the term \u2018innocent Nazi civilians\u2019 during World War II.\u2019<\/p>\n
Jacobs\u2019 effort to censure Mast comes as Georgia Republican Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Rich McCormick filed competing privileged resolutions to censure Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., over her numerous comments criticizing Israel since the war began. This is Greene\u2019s second effort to censure Tlaib after a vote on her initial resolution failed last week on the House floor.<\/p>\n
Jacobs claimed in her resolution that Mast\u2019s comments come as incidents of Islamophobia are on the rise in the U.S.<\/p>\n
\u2018The United States stands for the rule of law both here at home and abroad \u2014 and these comments denigrate those values and cause real, tangible harm,\u2019 she said in her statement. \u2018That\u2019s why I moved to censure Rep. Brian Mast to condemn this rhetoric and ensure this hate, fear, and violence stops here.\u2019<\/p>\n
When speaking to reporters on Monday, Mast described the attempt to censure him as \u2018idiotic\u2019 and defended his comments on the House floor comparing Palestinian civilians to Nazis.<\/p>\n
\u2018I would challenge anybody [to] find me a better single word that you could use to describe the Palestinian relationship to Jews than Nazi,\u2019 Mast said. \u2018I would say Nazi is the singular word that you could use to describe how they feel about Jews.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018I think anybody that says it\u2019s just Hamas is lying. And they know they\u2019re lying,\u2019 he added.<\/p>\n