President Trump reportedly wants Israel to bar Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib from entering the country.
Trump told senior White House advisers he hopes Israel uses its anti-boycott law to block the freshmen Democrats from touring the country, according to Axios. The law, passed by Israel’s Parliament in 2017, allows the country to refuse entry to anybody who supports boycotts against Israel.
The White House has denied that Trump made any such statement.
“The Israeli government can do what they want. It’s fake news,” White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said on Saturday.
Omar and Tlaib, the first two Muslim women elected to Congress, are expected to travel to Israel on Aug. 18 to learn more about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Both are supporters of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement to isolate Israel, which the House voted 398-to-17 to condemn on July 23. Omar and Tlaib voted against the resolution.
Trump has feuded with Omar and Tlaib in recent months, targeting them and their fellow freshmen lawmakers Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ayanna Pressley.
On July 14, Trump tweeted that the four lawmakers should “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.” Democrats and some Republicans criticized the tweets as racist, and 235 House Democrats and 4 Republicans voted to condemn the president’s remarks.
