Bibi to Decide Whether to Allow Muslim Congresswomen in Occupied Palestine

By Staff, Haaretz

Democratic US Congresswomen Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib are planning a visit to the Occupied Palestine in the coming weeks, but “Israeli” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will have to decide whether they would be allowed to enter, over the support they have voiced for the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement [BDS].

The lawmakers’ planned trip has been first reported on Wednesday, noting that Omar said that the “Israeli” occupation of Palestinian territories will be the focal point of the trip: "Everything that I hear points to both sides feeling like there is still an occupation."

Though, “Israeli” law allows authorities to deny entry into the “Israeli” occupied territories by individuals who support boycotting the entity. However, the entity’s so-called Foreign Ministry has the authority to recommend to the so-called Strategic Affairs Ministry and the Interior Ministry issuing waivers for political or diplomatic figures, if it deems denying them entry would harm the “Israeli” entity’s foreign relations.

Due to the sensitivity of the congresswomen's planned visit and its possible ramifications on “Israel”-US relations, Netanyahu would be asked to be the one to make the call on the issue.

Omar and Tlaib broke barriers when they were elected as the first Muslim US congresswomen in November. Omar, who was born in Somalia and immigrated at a young age to Minnesota, and Tlaib, who was born in Michigan to Palestinian parents, have been outspoken about their views on the “Israeli”-Palestinian conflict, as both support the BDS movement.

On Tuesday, Omar introduced a House resolution that "opposes unconstitutional legislative efforts to limit the use of boycotts to further civil rights at home and abroad," and affirms Americans' right to pursue boycotts "in pursuit of civil and human rights at home and abroad."

Both Omar and Tlaib hold anti-“Israeli” sentiments. In 2012, Omar tweeted that the “Israeli” entity had "hypnotized the world" to carry out "evil".

Tlaib conceived of her trip to the West Bank last year, and proposed it as an alternative to AIPAC-organized trips to the “Israeli” entity. She told the Intercept that she was "rejecting [the] ‘Israel’ lobby's influence over Congress" echoing and that her plan was a "rebuke of a decades-old tradition for newly elected members: a junket to ‘Israel’ sponsored by the education arm" of AIPAC. "I want us to see that segregation and how that has really harmed us being able to achieve real peace in that region," The Intercept quoted Tlaib as saying.

The trip was reported to be jeopardized on Sunday after the organizing group, the Humpty Dumpty Institute, which describes itself on its website as being “dedicated to tackling difficult global and domestic issues, pulled out of the trip due to scheduling conflicts. Regardless, a spokeswoman for Tlaib, the first Palestinian-American woman elected to Congress, told the Daily News she was “pretty sure” the trip would still be taking place in August.

“My city [of Beit Ur al-Fauqa] is so excited that I am possibly going to come to see her next month,” Tlaib said, according to Jewish Insider. “She is so happy. And I am going to take my two wonderful boys… and they are going to meet their great grandmother. So I am really, really excited about that.”