Israel to allow Rep. Rashida Tlaib entry permit to visit family in West Bank
Israel Hayom
August 16, 2019
Interior Minister Aryeh Deri on Friday issued an approval for US Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) to enter Israel, after initially barring her and fellow Democratic party mate Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) from visiting the Jewish state on a "fact-finding" mission.
Tlaib had submitted a written request to be allowed to visit her Palestinian relatives in the West Bank, "especially" her grandmother, who Tlaib said was in her 90s.
"This could be my last opportunity to see her," Tlaib wrote.
Tlaib ended her request to Deri with an explicit promise to "respect any restrictions and [not] promote boycotts against Israel" during her visit.
Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan said in a Twitter message earlier Friday that "the decision to keep the congressional representatives out was justified after a review of their planned itinerary showed that the goal of their visit was to continue supporting and promoting a boycott of Israel."
However, Erdan argued, "Rep. Tlaib's request to visit her grandmother should be approved. Especially in light of her commitment to respect Israeli law and not promote boycotts against us [while here]," the minister tweeted.
Omar, who is still being barred entry, said on Thursday that Israel's decision to block her visit to the country was an "insult to democratic values" and was unsurprising given Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's resistance to peace efforts.
"The irony of the 'only democracy' in the Middle East making such a decision is that it is both an insult to democratic values and a chilling response to a visit by government officials from an allied nation," Omar, who sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a statement after Israel barred her visit with fellow Democratic Congresswoman Tlaib.
The congresswomen have been vocal critics of Israel and advocated support for the boycott, divestments, and sanctions movement targeting the government and Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria.
Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely officially announced earlier Thursday that Tlaib and Omar would not be allowed to enter Israel due to their BDS support.
“Israel has decided – we won’t enable the members of Congress members to enter the country,” Hotovely told Israeli public broadcaster Kan.
“We won’t allow those who deny our right to exist in this world to enter Israel. In principle this is a very justified decision,” she added.
The decision to ban the two lawmakers from entering Israel, made by Deri, was first reported by Hebrew-language broadcaster Channel 12.
As final deliberations were being made on the matter, US President Donald Trump took to Twitter to encourage the Israeli government not to back down.
"It would show great weakness if Israel allowed Rep. Omar and Rep.Tlaib to visit," Trump posted to Twitter earlier on Thursday. "They hate Israel & all Jewish people, & there is nothing that can be said or done to change their minds. Minnesota and Michigan will have a hard time putting them back in office. They are a disgrace!"
US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said called Israel's decision "deeply disappointing" and called on it to reverse the move.
"Israel's denial of entry to Congresswomen Tlaib and Omar is a sign of weakness, and beneath the dignity of the great State of Israel," Pelosi said.
Meanwhile, in Tlaib’s ancestral village in the West Bank, her family said her support of the BDS movement comes from her life experience.
"As a member of American Congress and also as a Palestinian, for some of her life, Rashida lived under occupation," Tlaib's uncle Bassem told i24NEWS. "She lived the reality of suffering from the Israeli occupation, so the message of her visit will be different from what you hear in the media about this region."
"It will be different from what the American people hear and think about the occupation. Rashida will give the right picture of the occupation and the way Palestinians live," her uncle added.
"We are very proud to have a person like Rashida, not just because she is a member in American Congress but also because she is a very strong woman. She made a lot of effort to reach this point," Ashraf Samara, who leads the village council, told i24NEWS.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Israel’s reversal disgusts me. Israeli officials are badly mistaken if they think allowing entry to Talib but not to Omar will satisfy the Democrats. Allowing Tlaib entry is a true sign of weakness.
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Rashida Tlaib rejects Israeli permission to visit her elderly grandmother because she will not be 'silenced' - after promising NOT to protest when she asked to be allowed into the West Bank
Daily Mail
August 16, 2019
Democratic Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib said on Friday she will not visit her grandmother in the occupied West Bank after Israel granted her entry, saying it would stand 'against everything I believe in.'
'When I won, it gave the Palestinian people hope that someone will finally speak the truth about the inhumane conditions. 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,' she tweeted Friday morning. '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.
Earlier the Israeli government said Tlaib would be allowed to enter Israel to visit if she agreed not to partake in any activities on the part of the Boycott Israel movement.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Good riddance! If the conditions in the West Bank are so inhumane, how come is it that Tlaib’s grandmother is alive in her 90s?
And Tlaib fucking lied when she brought Democrats to tears by claiming earlier that denying her entry would keep her from a last chance visit to see her elderly grandmother. By refusing to go, she has exposed that the real purpose of her trip was not to see her grandmother, but to go to Israel and the West Bank in order to make a public spectacle of protesting the inhumanity.
Fuck Tlaib, Omar and the Democrats!
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