JERUSALEM: US congresswoman Rashida Tlaib on Friday rejected Israel’s
offer to let her travel to the West Bank, saying she would not visit her
family after the Israeli government lifted a ban on her entry but
imposed “oppressive conditions” to humiliate her.
Tlaib, a Democrat who represents Michigan in the US House of
Representatives and has been critical of Israeli policy toward the
Palestinians, had planned to make an official visit to Israel along with
fellow Democrat congresswoman Ilhan Omar of Minnesota.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, under pressure from US
President Donald Trump, on Thursday said he would not allow them to make
a planned trip to Israel. On Friday, Israel decided to allow Tlaib to
visit family in the occupied West Bank on humanitarian grounds.
“I can’t allow the State of Israel to take away that light by
humiliating me & use my love for my sity to bow down to their
oppressive & racist policies,” Tlaib tweeted, using the word sity to
refer to her grandmother.
“Silencing me & treating me like a criminal is not what she wants
for me. It would kill a piece of me. I have decided that visiting my
grandmother under these oppressive conditions stands against everything I
believe in--fighting against racism, oppression & injustice,” she
added.
Tlaib and Omar have voiced support for the pro-Palestinian Boycott,
Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement which opposes the Israeli
occupation and policies toward Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.
Under Israeli law, BDS backers can be denied entry to Israel.
Netanyahu had said Israel would consider a humanitarian travel request
by Tlaib so long as she promised not to promote a boycott against
Israel.
Tlaib and Omar are the first two Muslim women to be elected to Congress,
and the Detroit-born Tlaib is also the first Palestinian-American
congresswoman. Both are members of their party’s progressive wing and
sharp critics both of Trump and Israeli policy.
The two, along with fellow Democratic US Representatives Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts have also
drawn direct attacks from Trump.
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