Tlaib denounces Pompeo's decision to recognize BDS as antisemitic

Democratic U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib speaks at a climate rally with presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders and Rep. Ro Khanna in Iowa City

(photo credit: SCOTT MORGAN/REUTERS)

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Instead of focusing on formulating a plan to serve Michigan's 13th congressional district, Representative Rashida Tlaib has once again turned her attention in favor of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and Palestinian rights.

Following Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's decision to withdraw funding from groups that boycott Israel while in Israel last week, Tlaib voiced her anti-Israel concerns via Twitter on Monday, denouncing the decision as a slap in the face to the Palestinian people while encouraging the incoming presidential administration to "change course" in policy.

"Sec. Pompeo has moved to suppress BDS, a peaceful protest movement protected by the 1st Amendment," Tlaib said in her tweet, mentioning President-elect Joe Biden's choice to replace Pompeo, Anthony Blinken, directly.

"I hope that Mr. Blinken and President-Elect Biden’s Administration will change course from Trump’s State Department and not target or suppress support of Palestinian human rights," she said.

Giving a jab to both Pompeo and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in one sentence, Tlaib added that "so long as [Pompeo] doesn't suppress my First Amendment right to speak out against Netanyahu's racist and inhumane policies. The Palestinian people deserve equality and justice."

Following Pompeo's meeting with Netanyahu, the Secretary of State later released a statement that the US “strongly opposes the global discriminatory Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign... and practices that facilitate it, such as discriminatory labeling and the publication of databases of companies that operate in Israel or Israeli-controlled areas.”

He added that “anti-Zionism is antisemitism.”

Pompeo directed the Office of the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism to identify organizations that support the BDS movement and whether they are working to penalize or limit commercial relations with Israel or “any territory controlled by Israel,” meaning Judea and Samaria.

Soon after, he announced the US would allow products of Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria to be labeled as “Made in Israel,” as opposed to “Made in the West Bank.”

The State Department will review its funds to make sure none are going to entities that support the BDS campaign, including foreign aid funding, Pompeo said.

Thirty states currently have various laws that ban state funding for affiliates of the anti-Israel BDS movement.

Tlaib, who has Palestinian heritage and has made much of it since her election to Congress, has long been a high profile critic of Blinken, and most recently criticized him for not speaking out against Israel as National Security Advisor during the Obama administration when is appointment was announced earlier in the week.

Tlaib has been accused of holding extremely hostile views toward Israel, and was criticized earlier this year for a tweet on the Holocaust in which she didn’t mention Jews, the primary victims.

She also has a long history of criticism for comments and activities on Israeli and Jewish topics. In August 2019, Israel announced that Tlaib and her Congressional colleague Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota), another strong Israel critic accused of past antisemitism, would be denied entry into the country.

More recently, in December 2019, Tlaib accused Netanyahu of actively fighting against a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

This came following the passing of US House Resolution 326 spearheaded by Democratic House members as a response to the Trump administration's "Deal of the Century," which expressed support for a two-state solution and warned Israel against attempting to annex territory in the West Bank.

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