Tel Aviv - Israel will not allow entry to left-leaning US
lawmakers Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, Israel's deputy foreign
minister said Thursday, whose planned visit has sparked tense debate.
"We will not allow entry to those who deny our right to exist in the
world," Tzipi Hotovely told the Kan television broadcaster.
It remains unclear whether the two lawmakers, who have voiced support
for the anti-Israel BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) movement,
are still planning to try to enter Israel. Media reports said the two
are expected to travel either Friday, Saturday or Sunday to Israel.
BDS aims to stop Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories
by boycotting Israeli companies and goods.
Hotovely's announcement came shortly after US President Donald Trump
said it would "show great weakness" if Israel allowed them to visit.
"They hate Israel and all Jewish people, and there is nothing that
can be said or done to change their minds," Trump tweeted.
Calling the two Democratic members of the US House of Representatives
"a disgrace," Trump said their home states, Michigan and Minnesota,
"will have a hard time putting them back in office."
Israel's government in 2018 decided to ban visits from activists of
certain organizations that had called for the boycott of Israel,
accusing the BDS movement of anti-Semitism and singling out the
Jewish state.
Tlaib and Omar, the first two Muslim women elected to Congress, are
reportedly planning a visit to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem along
with Palestinian representatives. The Temple Mount is one of the
holiest sites in the Jewish and Islamic faiths.
There are concerns of diplomatic repercussions if the Israeli
government follows through on its decision to bar their entry.
Omar, whose press office would not confirm the visit, has been an
outspoken supporter of ending the Palestinian occupation and come in
for criticism in the United States for what some describe as
anti-Semitic views. In February she was forced to apologize for
alleging that Israeli money influenced the actions of Congress.
But Omar and Tlaib have also been subject to discrimination
themselves. They were two of four left-leaning lawmakers told to "go
back" to where they came from by President Donald Trump.
Omar was born in Somalia and brought to the US by her parents as a
child. Tlaib was born in Detroit and is the daughter of Palestinian
immigrants to the United States.