Needless to say, after being banned from Israel over support for the anti-Israel BDS movement, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib weren’t too happy.
Instead of taking the decision in stride and moving forward or reconsidering their actions, though, Omar and Tlaib stayed true to themselves and attacked Israel over the decision!
Omar and Tlaib took things farther in their hatred of Israel by implying that Israel is not an American ally and not a democracy!
Ilhan Omar said,
“We give Israel more than $3 million in aid every year. This is predicated on them being an important ally in the region, and the only democracy in the Middle East. But, denying a visit to duly elected members of Congress is not consistent with being an ally,”
“The decision to ban me and my colleague, the first two Muslim-American women elected to Congress, is nothing less than an attempt by an ally of the United States to suppress our ability to do our jobs as elected officials.”
To which Tlaib followed up with an anecdote in which she describes Israel as “dehumanizing” Americans,
“As a young girl visiting Palestine to see my grandparents and extended family, I watched as my mother had to go through dehumanizing checkpoints – even though she was a United States citizen and a proud American. She said I’m her dream manifested. I’m her free bird so why would I come back and be caged and bow down?”
What do you think?
Is this crossing the line?!?
Watch Omar and Tlaib's statements regarding their ban from Israel here to decide for yourself:
Benny Johnson of Turning Point USA made an excellent point:
CBS News has more to say about Omar and Tlaib's latest attack on Israel:
On Thursday, Tlaib and Omar, the two first Muslim women to serve in Congress, both critics of the current Israeli government, were preparing to travel to Israel to visit the occupied Palestinian territories and meet with activists there. But under public pressure by President Trump, a vocal critic of Omar and Tlaib, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government said it would not allow the two lawmakers to enter the country, citing their support for boycotting Israel.
The Israeli government did offer to let Tlaib in on humanitarian grounds to visit her 90-year-old Palestinian grandmother on the condition that she did not promote a boycott of Israel. Tlaib initially agreed, but later rejected the offer, saying she would not make the visit under "oppressive conditions."
Getting visibly emotional, Tlaib said she made the decision to not accept the conditional travel permit after consulting with her grandmother and other family members.
"Through tears, at three 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," she said.
The decision by Netanyahu's government to deny entry to two sitting members of Congress prompted withering criticism from Democrats, who said the move could damage the typical bipartisan support among U.S. lawmakers for Israel.
Omar suggested the travel restrictions contradict longstanding beliefs by Republican and Democratic administrations that Israel is one of America's most steadfast allies and the sole true democracy in the Middle East.
"Denying visit to duly elected members of Congress is not consistent with being an ally," she said. "And denying millions of people freedom of movement or expression or self determination is not consistent with being a democracy."
Fox News also commented:
An emotional Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib on Monday held back tears during a news conference as she and Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar condemned Israel’s recent decision to impose restrictions on visiting the country, with the Democrats calling for Congress to get involved.
“We in the United States have a constructive role to play,” Omar said at the news conference in St. Paul, Minn. “We give Israel more than $3 billion in aid every year. This is predicated on them being an important ally in the region, and the only democracy in the Middle East. But, denying a visit to duly elected members of Congress is not consistent with being an ally.”
Omar said lawmakers “have a responsibility to conduct oversight over our government’s foreign policy and what happens with the millions of dollars we send in aid.”
The two Muslim lawmakers held an afternoon news conference at the Minnesota State Capitol Building with Palestinian-American and Jewish-American residents of Minnesota who said they also have been affected adversely by travel restrictions to Israel and the Palestinian territories. The purpose of the event, Omar said, was to “highlight the human costs of the occupation and travel restrictions on Palestinians and others.”
"The decision to ban me and my colleague, the first two Muslim-American women elected to Congress, is nothing less than an attempt by an ally of the United States to suppress our ability to do our jobs as elected officials," Omar said.
Tlaib held back tears as she discussed her experiences visiting Jerusalem as a child.
“As a young girl visiting Palestine to see my grandparents and extended family, I watched as my mother had to go through dehumanizing checkpoints – even though she was a United States citizen and a proud American,” she said.
Referencing recent conversations with her Palestinian grandmother, who she had planned to visit on the trip, Tlaib choked up: “She said I’m her dream manifested. I’m her free bird so why would I come back and be caged and bow down?”
Omar jumped in: “What I tell Rashida all the time is that you don’t ever allow people to enjoy your tears. I say that all the time. There are so many people invested in our pain, in our struggle, in seeing us broken.”
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