Representative-elect Rashida Tlaib (D-Michigan), the first Palestinian-American woman elected to Congress, is looking forward to bringing a congressional delegation of freshman lawmakers to the West Bank and also said she backs the boycott, divest and sanctions (BDS) movement.
The West Bank trip would be a counter-balance and alternative to the Israel trips offered by pro-Israel lobbying group the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) for newly elected members. Democratic and Republican freshmen traditionally participate in AIPAC-led trips to Israel during the first August recess.
Tlaib told The Intercept that she does not believe those trips offer a comprehensive view of the highly contentious region.
“I want us to see that segregation [between Israelis and Palestinians] and how that has really harmed us being able to achieve real peace in that region,” Tlaib told The Intercept. “I don’t think AIPAC provides a real, fair lens into this issue.”
“It’s one-sided,” she said “[They] have these lavish trips to Israel, but they don’t show the side that I know is real, which is what’s happening to my grandmother and what’s happening to my family there.”
In the interview with The Intercept Tlaib also came out in full support of the Palestinian-led BDS movement, a campaign in which participants promote nonviolent means to protest what its supporters call human rights abuses against Palestinians by the Israeli state.
“I personally support the BDS movement,” Tlaib told The Intercept, adding that she believes economic boycotts are an effective way to draw attention to “issues like the racism and the international human rights violations by Israel right now.”
She is the second member of Congress to publicly support BDS, alongside incoming Rep.-elect Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.). Omar and Tlaib are the first Muslim women to be elected to Congress.
