Tlaib: I Won't Accept Israel's Conditions for Trip

Rep. Rashida Tlaib will not travel to the West Bank to visit her grandmother after all. After Israel said it would allow the Michigan congressman to enter the country to visit her 90-year-old grandmother—on the condition she not promote a boycott of Israel—Tlaib rejected the offer. "Silencing me & treating me like a criminal is not what she wants for me," Tlaib tweeted, referring to her grandmother. "It would kill a piece of me. I have decided that visiting my grandmother under these oppressive conditions stands against everything I believe in." She added that when she won office, it "gave the Palestinian people hope that someone will finally speak the truth about the inhumane conditions. I can't allow the State of Israel to take away that light." She said she would not allow Israel to "use my love for my sity to bow down to their oppressive & racist policies."

This follows Israel's decision on Thursday to bar Tlaib and fellow congresswoman Ilhan Omar from visiting together, per the AP. Israel's move came after President Trump said in a tweet it would show "weakness" to allow in the two, who have been sharply critical of Israel's policies toward the Palestinians. Tlaib and Omar had planned to visit Jerusalem and several West Bank cities, starting this weekend. Both are known as supporters of "boycott, divestment and sanctions," or BDS, a Palestinian-led global movement. Israel alleges that BDS targets Israel's very existence, while the movement's supporters say it is intended as leverage to end more than half a century of Israeli military rule over Palestinians.

(More Rashida Tlaib stories.)