Rashida Tlaib, the newly elected Democratic congresswoman from Michigan, plans to lead a trip of incoming US lawmakers to the West Bank.
Tlaib, who is Palestinian-American and one of the first two Muslim women to be elected to Congress, discussed her plans in an article in The Intercept published yesterday.
Her trip is a counterpoint to the traditional Israel trip for first-term lawmakers sponsored by the education arm of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, which includes touring and meetings with leading Israeli figures in business, government, and the military.
In this October 26, 2018 file photo, Rashida Tlaib, then a Democratic candidate for Michigan’s 13th Congressional district, smiles during a rally in Dearborn, Michigan. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)
Tlaib told The Intercept her trip will focus on issues like Israel’s detention of Palestinian children, education, access to clean water and poverty – and perhaps a visit to the northern West Bank village of Beit Ur al-Foqa, where her grandmother lives.
“I want us to see that segregation and how that has really harmed us being able to achieve real peace in that region,” Tlaib said in the interview. “I don’t think AIPAC provides a real, fair lens into this issue. It’s one-sided. … [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.”
— JTA
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