Israel reverses travel ban on US lawmaker Tlaib, allowing her to visit Palestinian grandmother

Israel has said it would allow US congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (D-Michigan) to visit the country on “humanitarian” grounds, reversing a ban it has imposed on the US lawmaker which had been urged by Donald Trump.

Interior Minister Aryeh Deri announced on Friday that Tlaib would be permitted to travel to Israel, just one day after the congresswoman and her colleague, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota), both members of the Democratic Party, were told that they would not be granted entry over their support for boycotting the Jewish State.

The decision was reversed after Tlaib submitted a letter to Deri requesting admittance to Israel so that she could visit her relatives in the West Bank.

Tlaib wrote that the trip could be her “last opportunity” to see her elderly Palestinian grandmother, and that she would “respect any restrictions and will not promote boycotts against Israel” during her visit.

Granting the request, the interior ministry expressed hope that the congresswoman “will live up to her promise and that the visit will only be for humanitarian needs.”

The decision comes just hours after US President Donald Trump tweeted that allowing Tlaib and Omar to visit Israel would “show great weakness,” arguing that the lawmakers “hate Israel & all Jewish people, & there is nothing that can be said or done to change their minds.”

His tweet apparently persuaded Tel Aviv (at least briefly), who issued a travel ban on both congresswomen shortly afterwards.

Both Tlaib and Omar have been vocal advocates of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. Israel had announced in July that it would permit the pair to travel to the country, despite a divisive 2017 law banning entry to any foreigner who makes a “public call for boycotting Israel.”

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