Tlaib’s grandmother speaks out
U.S. congresswoman abandons plans to visit her relative in West Bank
Rashida Tlaib’s grandmother doesn’t understand why her granddaughter, a sitting U.S. congresswoman, couldn’t visit her as originally planned.
Muftiyah Tlaib — who says she’s somewhere between 85 and her early 90s — lives in the village of Beit Ur al-Fauqa, about 25 kilometres outside Jerusalem and close to the seam line between Israel and the West Bank, territory that Israel occupied in the 1967 war and that Palestinians hope to see part of an independent state someday.
She lives in the same elegant limestone house in the same sleepy village she has called home since 1974 — the house where the whole village once came to celebrate Rashida Tlaib’s wedding, and the house that today looks directly onto an Israeli settlement with a visible military presence.
“She’s in a big position, and she cannot visit her grandmother,” she laughed, seated in her living room on Friday morning. “So what good is the position?”
In the end, Muftiyah Tlaib will not see her granddaughter in the coming week. The reunion would have marked the first time the two have seen each other since about 2007, she said.
On Friday, Israel partly reversed its decision from the day before to deny entry to Tlaib and fellow congresswoman Ilhan Omar from a planned tour of the Palestinian territories, on the grounds that “the sole purpose of their visit is to harm Israel and increase incitement against it.”
Israeli Interior Ministry Aryeh Deri said Friday that he would approve a separate humanitarian request for Tlaib to visit her grandmother.
“This would be my last opportunity to see her,” Tlaib wrote in a letter to Israeli authorities. “I will respect any restrictions and will not promote boycotts against Israel during my visit.”
For many Palestinians, the fact Tlaib accepted these terms was itself an affront, a humiliating compromise in which she was made to forgo her opinions to see her loved ones.
“Israel is the oppressor, and its racist attitude toward Palestinians is established policy,” Nour Odeh, a Palestinian journalist, wrote on Twitter. “Rashida should have known better. She should have acted with more dignity & pride.”
Tlaib appeared to agree by Friday morning.
“When I won, it gave the Palestinian people hope that someone will finally speak the truth about the inhumane conditions,” Tlaib tweeted. “I can’t allow the State of Israel to take away that light by humiliating me & use my love for my city to bow down to their oppressive & racist policies.”
She continued by adding, “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.”
Tlaib has previously lent her support to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement (BDS), which Israel sees as increasingly threatening. Her positions have earned her the ire of pro-Israel advocacy groups and also of some of her Democratic colleagues in Congress.
But the quiet village Beit Ur al-Fauqa, and specifically the view from Tlaib’s grandmother’s house, sheds at least some light on the force of her convictions.
A major highway now cuts directly through land the family says it once owned, Muftiyah Tlaib said, a thoroughfare that has altered the family’s access to olive groves and fig trees they still keep.
“I am proud of her,” grandmother said of granddaughter. “Who wouldn’t be proud of a granddaughter like that? I love her and am so proud of her.”
“There’s a special connection between Rashida and her grandmother,” said Bassan Tlaib, Rashida’s 53-year-old uncle, a local electrician. “She supported her when she got her first degree and when she got her second degree in law. It’s very important.”
In the meantime, Muftiyah Tlaib said she has followed her granddaughter’s career from afar. “I saw her yesterday on TV!” she said, smiling. “She looked cuter than ever.”