KEEPING UP THE FIGHT

Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar Question Whether Israel Is a True Ally

The Democratic congresswomen spoke in Omar’s home state of Minnesota after being banned from traveling to Israel last week.

Democratic congresswomen Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Ilhan Omar (D-MN) spoke together for the first time after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu banned them from traveling to Israel under pressure from President Trump. The congresswomen, addressing a press conference in Minneapolis, did not hold back. “Denying visit to duly elected members of Congress is not consistent with being an ally,” Omar said. “And denying millions of people freedom of movement or expression or self-determination is not consistent with being a democracy.” Tlaib, who was granted provisional access to visit her aging grandmother on the West Bank, explained her decision not to go. “Through tears, at 3 o’clock in the morning, we all decided as a family that I could not go until I was a free, American United States congresswoman coming there, not only to see my grandmother but to talk to Palestinian and Israeli organizations that believed that my grandmother deserves human dignity as much as anyone else does.”