Rashida Tlaib’s West Bank trip was ‘provocation to embarrass Israel’ – Israeli interior minister

Israel’s interior minister has fired another shot in the scuffle over US lawmaker Rashida Tlaib’s (D-MI) plan to visit the West Bank, accusing the congresswoman of staging a ‘provocation’ to humiliate Israel.

Interior Minister Aryeh Deri condemned Tlaib’s motives in a tweet on Friday morning, after the congresswoman announced that she would not make the trip to Israel after all.

“Congresswoman Rashida Talib has now tweeted that she will not come to Israel,” Deri said. “Last night, she sent me a letter asking her to allow her 90-year-old grandmother to visit ‘because this could be my last chance to meet her.’ I approved it [on] humanitarian [grounds], but it turns out that it was a provocation to embarrass Israel.”

Her hatred for Israel overcomes her love for her grandmother.

Deri’s jab follows days of back-and-forth statements between Israeli officials and Tlaib, as well as her fellow Democratic representative, Ilhan Omar (D-MN). Earlier on Friday, Israel announced that it would allow Tlaib to visit her relatives in the West Bank, reversing an earlier decision to bar entry to both Tlaib and Omar over their public support for a boycott of Israel.

After the reversal, however, Tlaib announced her own U-turn, stating she would not go through with the visit under “oppressive conditions.”

“The Israeli government used my love and desire to see my grandmother to silence me,” she said in a statement explaining her decision. “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.”

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