From the Liveblog of
Thursday, August 15, 2019
US envoy backs entry ban on Omar, Tlaib, saying they support ‘economic warfare’
US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman releases a statement saying he “supports and respects” Israel’s decision to deny entry to US congresswomen Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar over their BDS support.
“The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions [BDS] movement against Israel is not free speech,” Friedman says. “Rather, it is no less than economic warfare designed to delegitimize and ultimately destroy the Jewish State. Israel properly has enacted laws to bar entry of BDS activists under the circumstances present here, and it has every right to protect its borders against those activists in the same manner as it would bar entrants with more conventional weapons.”
Like Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Friedman criticizes Omar and Tlaib for “limiting [their] exposure to tours organized by the most strident of BDS activists. This trip, pure and simple, is nothing more than an effort to fuel the BDS engine that congresswomen Tlaib and Omar so vigorously support.”
Please read my attached statement with regard to the decision of the Government of Israel to deny entry to BDS activists, Congresswomen Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, in accordance with its national laws. pic.twitter.com/q9M2N1uRkr
— Chargé d’Affaires ad interim Stephanie Hallett (@USAmbIsrael) August 15, 2019
The Times of Israel Community.