US lawmaker Tlaib scraps West Bank trip over Israeli demands
Palestinian-American lawmaker Rashida Tlaib yesterday turned down Israel’s offer to let her visit her grandmother in the occupied West Bank, owing to restrictions she termed oppressive.
It was the latest twist in a saga hinging on Israel’s war against those who would boycott it over its treatment of the Palestinians.
On Thursday, Israel barred from entry the US Congress’ first Muslim women lawmakers, Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, on the grounds that they support the boycott movement, and after President Donald Trump urged the Jewish state to block the two Democrats.
But it held out the carrot of allowing Tlaib to make a private visit to her elderly grandmother, if she agreed to abide by conditions including a pledge not to advocate boycotting Israel.
“This could be my last opportunity to see her. I will respect any restrictions and will not promote boycotts against Israel during my visit,” she intially wrote.
Yesterday, Israel’s Interior Minister Aryeh Deri announced that she would be permitted a “humanitarian visit”, but a few hours later Tlaib announced a change of heart.
“I have decided that visiting my grandmother under these oppressive conditions stands against everything I believe in -- fighting against racism, oppression & injustice,” she wrote in a series of tweets.
“When I won, it gave the Palestinian people hope that someone will finally speak the truth about the inhumane conditions,” added the 43-year-old freshman congresswoman, elected in January.
“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 said, referring to her grandmother.
Meanwhile, two Israelis were wounded yesterday in what the Israeli army called a “terrorist” car-ramming attack near a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank, while the suspected assailant was shot dead.
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