<\/b><\/p>\n
In a controversial move, the Israeli government has decided to bar Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, the first two Muslim women elected to US Congress, from entering Israel-Palestine because of their <\/span>BDS<\/span><\/a> support.<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Israeli Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tzipi Hotovely told Israel’s public broadcaster <\/span>Kan News<\/span><\/a> on Thursday 15 August, “We won’t allow those who deny our right to exist in this world to enter Israel. In principle this is a very justified decision”. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n In a <\/span>Tweet<\/span><\/a> statement that afternoon, Omar said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s decision to ban the two congresswomen was made "under pressure" from US President Donald Trump.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n "It is an affront that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, under pressure from President Trump, would deny entry to representatives of the US government," <\/span>Omar said<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n General Secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative, Dr Mustafa Barghouti told Palestine Monitor, “[the] Israeli decision to ban Tlaib and Omar’s visit proves that Israel is not a democracy, has a racist government and afraid of exposing its human rights violations against Palestinians”.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n However, the following day, Israel partially reneged, stating they will allow Rashida Tlaib, who is of Palestinian decent, to visit family in the occupied West Bank on “humanitarian” grounds.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Tlaib made the personal plea after the ban was announced in a letter addressed to Israel’s interior minister, Aryeh Deri, which was approved on Friday 16 August in the morning.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n “I would like to request admittance to <\/span>Israel<\/span><\/a> in order to visit my relatives, and specifically my grandmother, who is in her 90s and lives in Beit Ur al-Fouqa,” Ynet, the online portal for Israel’s largest newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth, quoted Tlaib as saying.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n “This could be my last opportunity to see her. I will respect any restrictions and will not promote boycotts against Israel during my visit,” it added.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, accused the two women of aiming to use their trip to “strengthen the boycott against us and deny Israel’s legitimacy”.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n “For instance, they listed the destination of their trip as Palestine and not Israel,” he said in a <\/span>statement.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Israel <\/span>passed a law in 2017<\/span><\/a> that allows the government to deport people who support a boycott of Israel or Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank. The measure, widely condemned as anti-democratic and anti-free speech, was designed to combat the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Israel has used the BDS legislation to block entry to <\/span>students<\/span><\/a> and activists but also <\/span>foreign officials<\/span><\/a>, including French parliamentarians and members of the European parliament. It is not clear if a US member of congress has ever been barred before.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Lead image: The Guardian\/EPA<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/b><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In a controversial move, the Israeli government has decided to bar Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, the first two Muslim women elected to US Congress, from entering Israel-Palestine because of… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/palestinemonitor.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/palestinemonitor.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/palestinemonitor.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/palestinemonitor.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/palestinemonitor.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/palestinemonitor.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/palestinemonitor.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/palestinemonitor.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/palestinemonitor.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}