Israel’s interior minister tore into U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib on Friday for abruptly canceling plans to visit family in the West Bank after the government granted permission for the trip in a bid to smooth over a diplomatic firestorm.
“Apparently her hate for Israel overcomes her love for her grandmother,” Aryeh Deri tweeted.
The dueling statements from Tlaib and the Israeli government are poised to escalate a confrontation that briefly seemed to be ebbing Friday morning – when Deri granted Tlaib’s request on humanitarian grounds to see her grandmother in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
This came after the Israeli government drew bipartisan criticism in Washington for refusing entry to Tlaib, D-Mich., and Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., as part of a broader visit.
But then Tlaib, in a scathing statement and set of tweets, announced she had decided not to go, saying “oppressive conditions meant to humiliate me would break my grandmother’s heart.”
Smittah