American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), a US-based Palestinian rights nonprofit, erroneously referred to Israeli poet Ehud Manor as "romanticizing an illegal Israeli settlement that sits atop an ethnically cleansed Palestinian village" when his poem, "Ein Li Eretz Acheret" ("I have no other land") was recited by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi after the Supreme Court overturned Roe. v. Wade last week.
If you all missed it, Nancy Pelosi recited a poem by an Israeli poet romanticizing an illegal Israeli settlement that sits atop an ethnically cleansed Palestinian village. https://t.co/PQd0TSZXIv
— American Muslims for Palestine (@AMPalestine) June 27, 2022
The poem, written by Manor as a late response to the killing of his brother in the War of Attrition (1967-70), was released in 1986 and became an anti-war anthem over the years, starting with the First Lebanon War in 1982.
The context
Roe v. Wade was a landmark case of the US Supreme Court in 1973, ruling that pregnant women have the fundamental right to receive an abortion. This decision ignited the ongoing deliberation on whether or not abortion should be legal.
Almost 50 years later, the US Supreme Court voted 5-4 to overturn the ruling, allowing individual states to decide the circumstances under which a woman can or cannot receive an abortion. Hundreds of protests across the US erupted in response to the ruling, as activists attempted to send a clear message to the justices about their stance on the recent overturn.
In response to the life-changing ruling for over half of the American populace, Pelosi decided to recite Manor’s poem.
Jewish Voice for Peace wrote: “It is absurd yet fitting that Pelosi reads Israeli poetry expressing “love” for the settler-colonial nation despite the violence inherent to it.”
This wasn’t the first time that the Speaker of the House recited this poem in the midst of a dire issue. She also cited the poem in January 2021 in an effort to persuade Republicans to vote in favor of the impeachment of then-President Donald Trump.
Then, and now, Pelosi received criticism from the general public for reciting a poem instead of doing something of more worth, such as taking action against the Supreme Court’s decision.
Many Twitter users thought that Pelosi's decision to read this poem was symptomatic of liberal feminism, which is distinguished as the focal point of accomplishing gender equality through political reform.
By using this poem that deals with the invasion of Lebanon to respond to such an important moment in American history, Pelosi reacted inappropriately given the gravity of the historic court decisions, according to these Twitter users.