Rashida Tlaib got exactly what she wanted: proof that Israel cares little for its Palestinian neighbors and is more interested in silencing dissent than promoting discourse. Israel handed it to her on a silver platter.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Thursday that Israel would deny entry to Tlaib and Ilhan Omar just days before their scheduled visit, citing the congresswomen’s support of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement as proof of their intent to do harm. One look at Omar and Tlaib’s proposed agenda confirms Bibi’s concerns.
Let’s start with the organization sponsoring the trip. Miftah, a Palestinian advocacy group, has been linked to terrorist organizations in the region and regularly promotes anti-Semitic doctrines, like the “blood libel,” which claims “the Jews used the blood of Christians in the Jewish Passover.”
Miftah also supports Palestinian terrorists, such as Wafa Idrees, one of the first female Palestinian suicide bombers who blew herself up and killed at least one, injuring 150 others. In a January 2017 interview, founder and chair of the Miftah board of directors Hanan Ashrawi described Idrees as “the beginning of a string of Palestinian women dedicated to sacrificing their lives of the cause.”
It gets worse. Miftah published a Neo-Nazi article that describes a “white racist” as “any racially conscious White person who looks askance at miscegenation or at the rapidly darkening racial situation in America.” It goes on to claim Jews control the media in America and thus public opinion. “And who are these all-powerful masters of the media?” asks the author “As we shall see, to a very large extent they are Jews. … The preponderance of Jews in the media is so overwhelming, however, that we are obliged to assume that it is due to more than mere happenstance.”
Context matters if we’re going to have an honest conversation about why Tlaib and Omar wanted to visit Israel — or Palestine, according to their agenda. Perhaps the two congresswomen were simply unaware of Miftah’s ties to anti-Semitism. Or maybe they, like Miftah, truly believe that the rights of Palestinians outweigh the rights of Israelis, and that the latter should not exist.
Intentions aside, Tlaib and Omar were traveling to Israel to stir up trouble.
Denying them the opportunity to do so certainly nixed the problem, but another one stepped into its place. Tlaib now has the fuel to go back to her voters and say, See? I told you so! The narrative she’s been pushing ever since she walked into Congress just got a little bit stronger: Israel is bad, the Palestinians are oppressed, and Congress must do something about it. Many of the same Democrats who previously condemned Omar and Tlaib’s anti-Israel sentiments are already rallying behind their freshman colleagues.
Israel certainly had the moral right to bar Omar and Tlaib. Who wants an antagonist accusing you of “racism, oppression, and injustice” running around causing problems? Traveling to Israel wouldn’t have changed Omar and Tlaib’s minds.
Perhaps Israel’s decision was the politically correct one as well. By denying Omar and Tlaib entry, Netanyahu made it clear to his constituents that Israel would not tolerate disrespect, even if it means upsetting a few key allies in Congress.
But there’s something bigger at stake than mere politics. This is a battle of narratives, and the ultimate goal of Tlaib’s is to sway public support away from Israel. Israel’s government should be doing all it can to discount and cheapen her portrayal, even if that means allowing her to poke around the country looking for crimes that don’t exist.
It doesn’t matter that Israel granted her a humanitarian exception to visit her grandmother in the West Bank. Tlaib doesn’t want it. She planned to travel to Israel for one reason: to provide evidence that Israel really is the “bad guy.” Israel saved her the trip.
