Optics and political expedience aside, Israel didn’t violate any protocol or precedent in barring visits from Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar. The two Democrats actively lobby against the existence of Israel by supporting the boycott, divest, and sanctions movement.
But when Israeli officials gave the former Democrat a pass to visit her grandmother in the West Bank, Tlaib let the mask slip.
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. https://t.co/z5t5j3qk4H
— Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) August 16, 2019
Just hours prior, Tlaib had insisted that this trip could be her “last opportunity” to see her nonagenarian grandmother and promised Israel in a letter that she wouldn’t “promote boycotts” during her stay. Israel granted her request, and suddenly Tlaib remembered that she hates the only Jewish state on Earth more than she loves grandma.
In short, Israel called Tlaib’s bluff, and it turned out grandma was her prop for promulgating her fantasy of wiping Israel off the globe.
