OAN Newsroom
UPDATED 7:46 AM PT — Friday, August 16, 2019
Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib now says she will not visit Israel and the West Bank to see her family after the Israeli government allowed her to enter the holy land.
In a tweet Friday, Tlaib claimed she was being silenced and treated like a criminal. She went on to say visiting her family under “oppressive conditions” stands against everything she believes in.
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. https://t.co/z5t5j3qk4H
— Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) August 16, 2019
U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., listens to a constituent in Wixom, Mich., Thursday, Aug. 15, 2019. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Israel’s interior minister recently announced the government had approved Tlaib’s petition to visit the country on “humanitarian grounds.” This comes just one day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would not allow Tlaib and Representative Ilhan Omar to visit because their support for the BDS Movement goes against Israeli law. The movement is Palestinian-led campaign, which promotes various forms of boycott against Israel.
“There is no country in the world that respects the American Congress and the United States more than the state of Israel, but there is one thing that we are not willing to do,” said Netanyahu.”By law, we are not willing to admit into Israel those who call to for the boycott of the state of Israel and act to delegitimize the state of the Jews.”
The prime minister went on to say Israel has always welcomed American lawmakers, both Republicans and Democrats, with open arms, but says anti-Israeli sentiments will not be tolerated.
