Omar, Tlaib criticize Israel, Netanyahu for blocking visit
Democratic Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, the two Muslim congresswomen prohibited from entering Israel last week, on Monday blasted the U.S. ally for blocking their visit and sought to highlight challenges facing Palestinians under Israeli policies in a rare news conference during a congressional recess.
Speaking to reporters at the Minnesota Statehouse in St. Paul, Omar called into question the millions of dollars in U.S. aid given to Israel each year and encouraged other lawmakers to visit in their stead to see firsthand the humanitarian conditions of Palestinians, a top goal of their upended trip.
“We give Israel more than $3 (billion) in aid every year. This is predicated on them being an important ally in the region and the only democracy in the Middle East,” said Omar, D-Minn. “But denying a visit to duly elected members of Congress is not consistent with being an ally, and denying millions of people freedom of movement or expression or self-determination is not consistent with being a democracy.”
She added: “We must be asking, as Israel’s ally, that (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu’s government stop the expansion of settlements on Palestinian lands and ensure full rights for Palestinians if we are to give them aid.”
Tlaib, speaking at times through tears, took a more personal approach, expressing remorse about not being able to visit her grandmother who lives in the West Bank.
After Israel blocked their official visit, Tlaib, D-Mich., a Palestinian American, made an appeal to Israel officials to allow her to visit her relatives.
Israeli officials agreed, but they would have required her to sign a promise restricting her speech and her movement. Tlaib ultimately declined to go.
“My grandmother said … I’m her bird. She said I’m her dream manifested,” Tlaib said, her voice growing angry as she started to cry. “I’m her free bird, so why would I come back and be caged and bow down when my election rolls her head up high, gave her dignity for the first time?”
Netanyahu blocked Tlaib and Omar from visiting his country on Thursday, a move made at President Donald Trump’s urging. Trump, who has criticized the women repeatedly on Twitter, tweeted that approving the visit would “show great weakness” on Israel’s part and said Omar and Tlaib “hate Israel & all Jewish people, & there is nothing that can be said or done to change their minds.”
Both women have long been fierce critics of Israel and its treatment of Palestinians.
They support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, a global protest of Israel known as BDS. Israeli law bars visitors who support the boycott from entering, one of the prime reasons Israeli officials cited for stopping the two congresswomen from visiting the nation and neighboring Palestinian territories to learn about settlement expansion and humanitarian conditions.
Israel’s unprecedented move followed a frantic 24-hour lobbying session on the part of Democratic leaders and other strong supporters of Israel in the House, including Jewish lawmakers who do not agree with Tlaib’s and Omar’s positions on Israel. They urged Israeli leaders to embrace the duo’s visit to build understanding and argued that barring them from Israel would only embolden the BDS movement and critics of the Middle Eastern nation.
Since then, Democrats have also criticized Israeli leaders for requiring that Tlaib sign a memorandum restricting her comments and movements while visiting her grandmother in the West Bank.
During the news conference, Omar and Tlaib invited four women to speak about their own struggles with the Israeli government and in visiting family who lived there. They struck a note of defiance against Trump and Netanyahu.