“Pushing a narrative libelously accusing Israel of ethnic cleansing… is wrong and dangerous.”
American Jewish leaders sharply condemned a tweet by Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) which accused Israel of orchestrating “a decades-long ethnic cleansing project, funded by the U.S.”
Her tweet on Tuesday denounced the annual flag parade outside Jerusalem’s Old City.
Although the march was peaceful and did not pass through the Old City’s Arab Quarter, Tlaib referred to the event as “racist and violent ‘death to Arabs’ marches.” A small number of marchers who chanted “Death to the Arabs” were condemned by Israeli leaders.
Prior to and after the march, Gaza terrorists launched incendiary balloons, sparking a number of wildfires in Israeli areas near the Strip, though Tlaib had nothing to say about that.
After racist and violent “death to Arabs” marches earlier today in Jerusalem, children in Gaza are being woken by bombs in the middle of the night.
Israel’s government doesn’t value Palestinian lives. It has managed a decades-long ethnic cleansing project, funded by the U.S. https://t.co/LTEVu3Zr9P
— Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) June 16, 2021
Responding to Tlaib, Jonathan Greenblatt, director of the Anti-Defamation League tweeted, “We can and should have policy debates. But pushing a narrative libelously accusing Israel of ethnic cleansing or not seeing Palestinians as human – or focusing only on Israeli airstrikes without recognizing those are responses to attacks by terrorists – is wrong and dangerous.”
And in a statement to the Jewish Journal of Los Angeles, Stop Antisemitism Executive Director Liora Rez said, “It’s highly irresponsible of a sitting U.S. Congresswoman to blindly point the finger at our closest [Middle East] ally without mentioning the REASONING behind the bombing of Gaza – the two dozen terror balloons that set the south of Israel ablaze this entire week.”
Tlaib, born and raised in Detroit, is the first Palestinian-American elected to Congress. She supports the one-state solution and the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel.
Due to their support of the BDS movement, Israel barred Tlaib and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) from entering the country in 2019 shortly after their elections.
American Jewish leaders say tweets by the two Democrats stoke anti-Semitic tensions and create an environment that normalizes Jews-hatred.
A recent letter signed by more than 200 rabbis called on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to remove Omar from her positions on the House Foreign Affairs Committee over comments she made equating the Israeli and U.S. militaries with Hamas and the Taliban.
