After Israel granted access to Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., so she could visit her grandmother, Tlaib released a statement saying she would not be visiting Israel because of the “oppressive conditions.”
Tlaib pleaded her case to Israel’s interior minister, Aryeh Deri, asking for permission to visit her 90-year-old grandmother in the West Bank. Tlaib said it may be the last time she sees her grandmother.
Tlaib’s letter reads:
Minister Deri: I would like to request admittance to Israel in order to visit my relatives, and specifically my grandmother, who is in her 90s and lives in Beit Ur al-Fouqa. This could be my last opportunity to see her. I will respect any restriction and will not promote boycotts against Israel during my visit.
In the letter, Tlaib acknowledged she would not promote her boycott, divestment, and sanctions platform against Israel during her visit.
After Israel granted Tlaib approval, she released a statement saying she would no longer be visiting her grandmother, in an effort to prove a point about Israeli oppression.
Deri tweeted about the encounter, saying he approved Tlaib’s request to visit Israel as a “gesture of goodwill on a humanitarian basis.” However, when Tlaib declined the invitation, Deri ripped into Tlaib, saying, “Apparently her hate for Israel overcomes her love for her grandmother.”
I approved her request as a gesture of goodwill on a humanitarian basis, but it was just a provocative request, aimed at bashing the State of Israel. Apparently her hate for Israel overcomes her love for her grandmother.@realDonaldTrump @RashidaTlaib
— אריה מכלוף דרעי (@ariyederi) August 16, 2019
In the letter, Tlaib said the Israeli government is oppressing her because it is fearful of what oppression she might expose during her visit.
This is nonsense. Even if Tlaib were to see happiness and peace in Israel, she likely would still find a problem with the Israeli “occupation.”
She continued by saying, “I have therefore decided to not travel to Palestine and Israel at this time. Visiting my grandmother under these oppressive conditions meant to humiliate me would break my grandmother’s heart.”
Just In — Rep @RashidaTlaib: “I have therefore decided to not travel to Palestine and Israel at this time” pic.twitter.com/1TmT4sEAF6
— Alex Moe (@AlexNBCNews) August 16, 2019
Tlaib tweeted that when she won her congressional race, she gave the Palestinian people hope that someone would speak the truth about their inhumane conditions. Tlaib, however, was elected to represent the 13th District of Michigan, not the people of Palestine.
When I won, it gave the Palestinian people hope that someone will finally speak the truth about the inhumane conditions. I can't allow the State of Israel to take away that light by humiliating me & use my love for my sity to bow down to their oppressive & racist policies. https://t.co/OYIwExV0ga
— Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) August 16, 2019
After a fight for access to Israel, Tlaib has now declined this invitation solely to portray the Israeli government as oppressive. No information that has been brought to light thus far, however, shows any indication of oppression.
Far be it from me to suggest, as Deri has, that Tlaib cares more about this political spectacle than her own grandmother, but whatever the case, Israel opened the door, and Tlaib refused to walk through it.
