DETROIT – Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) will not be going to Israel despite sending a letter on her congressional letterhead asking Israel to allow her to visit her grandmother in the West Bank.
The Israelis said yes, but on Friday, Tlaib said she won’t go, citing what she calls “oppressive conditions."
“Like my grandmother said: 'I love that you are free as a bird there. You are my dream manifested, and I don’t want you to come back here caged up,'” Tlaib said.
That decision caps a week that ignited an international firestorm.
Tlaib and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) originally accepted a trip to Israel from a Palestinian nonprofit.
Israel originally said both women could come. This week, Israel barred them from coming. Both support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel. Omar has been roundly criticized for repeating anti-Semitic tropes.
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