Standing up for Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s right to visit Palestine, Geraldo Rivera on Fox News describes Palestinian conditions under occupation, and says, “If it were not Israel and it was not the Jews, if it was any other country that took this action, we would all be outraged.”
US Congresswomen Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib doubled down on their criticisms of the Israeli government for denying them entry to the country, with Omar hinting that Congress should reconsider the billions of dollars in annual military aid given to Israel.
Forward Opinion Editor Batya Ungar Sargon insinuated Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib shared anti-Semitic material on social media, when they posted a cartoon by Carlos Latuff showing Trump and Netanyahu silencing them. This is not the first time Ungar Sargon has led the assault on those very few who dare challenge Israeli policy head-on.
A ‘New York Times’ analysis of the Israeli government’s refusal to allow two American congresswomen to visit the West Bank embraces a central claim of the Israel lobby, that bipartisan support for Israel is critical to US national security, and leaves out Trump’s largest donors, the Adelsons, for whom Israel is the overriding issue.
By banning Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar from visiting the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem, Israel has created a political upheaval in the U.S., with many Americans now favoring cutting aid to the country. One thing achieved this result: The women support BDS, and they have demonstrated the power of the nonviolent campaign.
The Israeli Minister of the Interior says that Rashida Tlaib doesn’t love her grandmother as much as she hates Israel, a charge that goes back to the famous hasbara claim that there will only be peace when Palestinians “love their children more than they hate us.”
The long term political ramifications of Netanyahu’s decision to deny entry to Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar remain to be seen. What is clear, however, is that the latest efforts by the Israeli premier to quash the growing BDS movement have backfired.
U.S. Rep. Brad Sherman vilified the BDS campaign on PBS News Hour last night: “leaders of the BDS movement are trying — not the try to get Israel to change this or that policy, but to try to remove every Jew from the Middle East. Just as Hitler wanted a Jewish-free Europe.” Host Amna Nawaz allowed the false characterization to stand, and also echoed a characterization of Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib as anti-Semites.
The Netanyahu government barred Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar over their support for BDS, but earlier this week Israeli lawmakers sent a letter to Congress saying the two-state solution is more dangerous than BDS. Will Netanyahu bar two-state supporters next?
US Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib was told by Israel today that she could visit her family on the West Bank so long as she does not “promote boycotts against Israel” on the trip. She has refused the offer. “I have decided that visiting my grandmother under these oppressive conditions stands against everything I believe in–fighting against racism, oppression & injustice.”