Rashida Tlaib Blames “Senior” Democrats For Partnership With Terror-Linked Palestine Organization

Miftah is a Palestinian group that has expressed support for anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and terrorists in the past.

According to Tlaib, she and Omar aren't the only ones to have been sponsored by this terrorist-backing organization!

Five other Democrats have gone on trips to Israel to meet with Miftah!

The Daily Caller has more details:

Democratic Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib blamed senior members of her party after she and Democratic Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar faced backlash for partnering with a terror-linked group for their cancelled trip to Israel.

 

Tlaib and Omar held a joint press conference on Monday to address the cancelled trip, which Israel barred the lawmakers from making on account of their support for the anti-Israel boycott, divest and sanction (BDS) movement.

 

Palestinian-based organization Miftah, which has terror ties and in the past promoted anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, was partially sponsoring the trip. Tlaib dodged responsibility for the partnership when asked about Miftah at the press conference.

 

“Our colleagues that are senior members, some of whom have served multiple terms, actually told us about the organization,” said Tlaib, who broke down crying at another point in the press conference.

“We’re not the ones who chose the organization,” Tlaib added. “A U.S.-based sponsor organization chose it. But I think there we’re five members of Congress that actually went on a trip sponsored by the same organization.”

 

Five House Democrats attended a Miftah-sponsored trip to Israel in 2016: Luis Gutierrez of Illinois, Dan Kildee of Michigan, Hank Johnson of Georgia, Matt Cartwright of Pennsylvania and Mark Pocan of Wisconsin. The five Democrats reportedly met with an alleged member of a Palestinian terrorist group during that trip.

National Review is calling this a "national scandal."

Here's what David French over there had to say about the anti-Semitic, twisted background of Miftah and their sponsorship of the two congresswomen:

To the extent that I care at all about Israel blocking entry to two U.S. congresswomen who partner with anti-Semites who seek its destruction, I agree with critics who argue that Bibi Netanyahu should not appear to bow to Donald Trump’s tweeted demands and that blocking Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar from visiting Israel handed them a short-term propaganda victory. But that’s not the most important part of the story.

The most important element of the story is the fact that two American congresswomen shunned a bipartisan congressional delegation to Israel to go on an independent trip to Israel sponsored by vicious anti-Semites. Another important element of the story is that, as of today, the mainstream media have whitewashed Omar and Tlaib’s vile associations.

Writing yesterday, the Washington Post said that “Omar and Tlaib’s trip to Jerusalem and the West Bank was planned by Miftah, a nonprofit organization headed by Palestinian lawmaker and longtime peace negotiator Hanan Ashrawi.” The New York Times described it as an organization “headed by a longtime Palestinian lawmaker.” In its editorial, the New York Times editorial board identified it as a group “that promotes ‘global awareness and knowledge of Palestinian realities.’”

This is a whitewash. Thanks to a Twitter thread from the Washington Examiner’s Seth Mandel — who pointed to multiple additional sources — I started looking at the articles and views published on the Miftah website, and it was like peeling an onion of evil. There was layer upon layer of vile anti-Semitism.

Fox News also pointed out:

Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib are ramping up their criticism of Israel's decision to block them from entering the country, where according to Tlaib "racism and the politics of hate" are "thriving."

But in defending its decision, the Israeli government is citing the radical history of the group that was slated to sponsor the trip.

That group, named Miftah, has a long record of anti-Israel rhetoric that includes downplaying attacks on Israelis and even describing suicide bombers as "sacrificing their lives for the cause." It's a record poised to see new scrutiny as senior Democrats reportedly weigh retaliatory measures for the snub of the two freshman Democrats and the Trump and Netanyahu administrations hit back.

"The organization that is funding their trip is Miftah, which is an avid supporter of BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement), and among whose members are those who have expressed support for terrorism against Israel," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement.

Netanyahu cited Miftah as he alleged the lawmakers had ulterior, anti-Israel motives in their planned Israel trip.

For instance, a 2006 Miftah report dealing with the Second Intifada – a wave of Palestinian violence in the early 2000s – discussed a 2002 Jerusalem suicide bombing under a section titled “Fighting Back.” It described the attack, where Wafa Idrees blew herself up with a bomb that killed an Israeli and injured more than 100 others, as “the beginning of a string of Palestinian women dedicated to sacrificing their lives for the cause.”

More recently, Miftah’s founder, Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s executive committee, spoke against referring to Palestinian attackers as terrorists in a 2017 interview.

“They are seen by the people as resistance and you cannot somehow adopt the language of either the international community or the occupier by describing anybody who resists as a terrorist,” she told Germany’s DW.com, describing “this whole labeling thing” as “unfair and unjust.”

Miftah has not responded to Fox News’ request for clarification on their organization’s stance on violence.

The organization's position on BDS is far clearer.

“The BDS movement, to boycott, divest and sanction Israel, which arose out of Palestinian civil society, is also a crucially important force, which has great potential and deserves international attention,” wrote a member of Miftah's Media and Information Department in 2010.

“Boycotts, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) give us hope,” a 2012 piece said. More recently, a June 2019 document authored by Miftah promoting an interview with Birzeit University lecturer Dr. Ghassan Khatib said, “There must be coherence between official Palestinian diplomacy and public diplomacy, one form of which is the BDS movement.”