The Republican senator from Florida, Marco Rubio, said on Twitter yesterday that U.S. Congress representatives, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, wanted to be banned from traveling to Israel.
The senator said in a tweet that proof of that is that Tlaib has rejected the visa for humanitarian reasons granted by Israel to visit her elderly grandmother in the West Bank.
The two congresswomen planned a trip next week to Jerusalem and the West Bank on a tour organized by a Palestinian group that promotes the boycott of the state of Israel and whose members include people who have supported terrorism against the state of Israel, said an Israeli official statement.
For this reason, on Thursday, Israel decided to ban Tlaib and Rep. Ilhan Omar, representatives from Minnesota and Michigan respectively, from visiting the West Bank but said Tlaib could visit relatives for humanitarian reasons.
It was the Democratic representative, who expressly requested permission to visit her 90-year-old grandmother during the planned official trip and in the request she promised not to participate in any activity to promote boycotts against Israel during her visit.
However, in a tweet published yesterday, Thalib rejected the visa because according to her: “Silencing me & treating me like a criminal is not what she wants for me”.
Rubio found in her negative confirmation of his suspicion that the ban is what she wanted from the beginning.
“After she was denied entry on an official visit, representative Tlaib applied for a humanitarian visa to visit her 90-year-old grandmother,” Rubio wrote on Twitter.
“Israel granted her request,” Rubio said. “But now she rejects it. As I said before, being blocked is what they always wanted, ”he added.
“I disagree 100% with Reps. Tlaib & Omar on #Israel & am the author of the #AntiBDS bill we passed in the Senate But denying them entry into #Israel is a mistake. Being blocked is what they really hoped for all along in order to bolster their attacks against the Jewish state”, added the Florida senator.
For his part, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended his decision by ensuring in a statement posted on Facebook that:
“Congresswomen Tlaib and Omar are leading activists in promoting boycott legislation against Israel in the US Congress.”
“Just a few days ago, we received their itinerary for your visit to Israel, which revealed that they planned a visit whose sole objective is to strengthen the boycott against us and deny Israel’s legitimacy,” Netanyahu said in the statement.
“As a free and vibrant democracy, Israel is open to critics and criticis, with one exception: Israeli law prohibits the entry into Israel of those who
