Rashida Tlaib fails to apologize or correct her anti-Semitism

Three days after the “unbossed” Rep. Rashida Tlaib once again used her platform to spread hateful misinformation to her nearly 900,000 Twitter followers, the Michigan Democrat has finally issued a statement that fell far short of either an apology or a correction.

Instead of taking the blame or even admitting her error, she merely blamed fake news for a retweet that fulfilled her own prejudiced view of Israeli Jews, and, instead of spreading the word that, no, Israelis didn’t kill an innocent Palestinian child, she let anyone who saw her false retweet believe in a lie.

On Jan. 25, Tlaib retweeted Palestinian legislator Hanan Ashrawi’s emotional retweet of an accusation, which many have diagnosed as anti-Semitic blood libel, that 8-year-old Palestinian Qais Abu Ramila was kidnapped and killed by Israeli settlers after disappearing from his Beit Hanina, Israel, home on Jan. 24.

This kidnapping narrative, fueled by Abu Ramila’s parents, led Palestinian residents to descend on Jewish settlers in nearby Neveh Yaakov, another neighborhood in Jerusalem. Police kept demonstrators from reaching the Jewish neighborhood. However, in the ensuing clash, a number of demonstrators were injured, and some demonstrators threw rocks at police.

The following morning, on Jan. 25, Ramila was discovered by Israeli first responders in an east Jerusalem well that was a known safety hazard. Attempts to revive him were unsuccessful.

Ashrawi issued an apology “for retweeting something that’s not fully verified” hours after her initial tweet on Jan. 25.

Over the weekend and continuing through the week, Tlaib was subjected to intense scrutiny from the media and personalities including the Israeli consul general Dani Dayan and the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League Jonathan Greenblatt.

Perhaps as a reaction to such pressure, on Jan. 28, Tlaib retweeted Ashrawi’s apology and issued her own statement. Rather than apologize, she seemed to blame her behavior on “this era of inaccurate and manipulative news.”

A brief look through Tlaib’s track record of spreading false information shows her inaccuracies have less to do with the media than with her own biases.

On Dec. 10, a black couple in Jersey City killed a police officer and subsequently targeted a kosher market, where they killed three civilians before being killed in a shootout with police. Inside their van was a bomb “that had the reach of five football fields.”

Responding to the Jersey City attack on Dec. 12, Tlaib tweeted, “White supremacy kills,” displaying a poor understanding of the attackers and of the range of people who espouse anti-Semitism. Tlaib later deleted the tweet.

Rather than learning from the error, Tlaib reverted to an old standby on Dec. 29 when she blamed a spate of anti-Semitic attacks committed by both black and white people on President Trump for “[igniting] violence.”

On Aug. 24, Tlaib blamed Israel for the terrorist bombing that killed 17-year-old Rina Shnerb and wounded her father and brother on Aug. 23. Tlaib failed to mention the true impetus for Shnerb’s killing was more likely the Palestinian Authority’s policy known as “pay for slay,” or paying terrorists who perpetrate such heinous crimes against innocent people.

On July 23, Tlaib voted against House Resolution 246 condemning the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement against Israel, claiming it was an “attack on our freedom of speech.” At the same time, she was ignoring pleas for assistance from a constituent who had experienced the precise kind of hatred for which the House was condemning BDS when a BDS “boycott” of the constituent’s unopened Dearborn, Michigan, restaurant made him the target of vandalism, anti-Semitic harassment, and threats.

In a May 20 appearance on a podcast, Tlaib claimed it gave her a “calming feeling” to know that her Palestinian ancestors gave the Jews their Israeli “safe haven” after the Holocaust. In revisionist Holocaust history that was widely condemned, Tlaib also claimed that Palestinians lost “their lives, their livelihood, their human dignity, [and] their existence in many ways” as a result of this generosity.

The common thread uniting these various incidents is that, in making her remarks, Tlaib was not swayed by some overlord of “inaccurate and manipulative news.” The freshman representative’s missteps and inaccuracies have been the result of her biased view of the world.

In the future, Tlaib should check that bias before furthering the hate she blames solely on the president.

Beth Bailey (@BWBailey85) is a freelance writer from the Detroit area.