Jerusalem – On Wednesday, Congresswoman Ilhan Omar announced that she will be visiting Israel and the Palestinian territories in the coming weeks.
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Omar will be accompanied by Rep. Rashida Tlaib. The two freshman congresswomen have become a focal point of the Jewish community after expressing numerous controversial comments regarding Israel and several statements that were deemed anitsemitic.
The congresswoman said she would travel to Israel on the same day that she introduced a new “pro-boycott” of Israel resolution in Congress “affirming that all Americans have the right to participate in boycotts in pursuit of civil and human rights at home and abroad, as protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution.”
Omar’s action was in response to the House Foreign Affairs Committee moving forward with five pro-Israel bills, three of which are resolutions with declarative purpose, and two others bills that seek to sanction supporters of Hamas and to make improvements to the defense and security assistance to Israel.
Israel has a law the grants the government authority to ban pro-BDS activists from entering the country. The law has been used sporadically over the past two years.
A government official told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s National Security Council was reviewing the issue and would offer him recommendations on how to respond.
According to the dry law, Omar, whose legislation implicitly calls for the boycott of Israel, could be denied entry to Israel. However, due to her status as a US congresswoman, Israel is unlikely to use the legislation which if done, could spark an international crisis.
Yisrael Beiteinu MK Eli Avidar, who is a former diplomat, reacted to Omar’s decision to come to Israel. He said, “Congresswoman Ilhan Omar is coming to Israel to try to improve her relations with Israel supporters in the democratic party. It will not work. She should instead come and meet with former MK Hanin Zoabi and learn how politics based on hate marginalizes you and leaves you forgotten.”
In contrast, MK Aida Touma-Sliman (Hadash) attacked Netanyahu for even considering not permitting the congresswomen into the country and said he must let them in.
“After Trump attacked them with racism, Netanyahu is mulling preventing their entrance into Israel,” she said. “Omar and Tlaib represent world public opinion – against the occupation and in favor of Palestinian independence. They will continue to make their voices heard whether they are allowed to enter or not, and Netanyahu will not be able to act like a swan and hide the occupation.”
I would bet the Israels will. They have an election coming up and this sort of things fires up some voters.
They should ban her. And all you thinking that by letting her in and showing her how the Israelis are so nice will do any good think again. She is a Jew hater and nothing you can do that will change that. You can not reason with a leftist, facts don’t matter only feelings. (Same goes for all the leftist on here
I doubt she can afford to pay them enough for such publicity.
will be vey stupid to let her in. Very stupid. Less problems with banning her than with her visit. Only if Bibi wants to use her for his election. Hopefully he is not so selfish.
Send her back to Somalia
this is where israeli tact, or lack thereof, should come into play. absolutely ban this piece of garbage. throw her out!
I don’t think that she will be banned; look, the Israelis let in that momzer Al Sharpton in, after he instigated the Crown Heights Pogrom, resulting in the death of Yankel Rosenbaum. Hence, if that let him in, there is no doubt that they will let her in.
No good choices.
If Netanyahu lets these 2 pieces of manure in to the Jewish State; I will lose any respect for him. HE and Israel will be the laughingstock of all Jew haters in the world, and will give every antisemite chizuk to their claims that Jews are cowards and have no backbone.I’m disgusted with anyone who thinks that Israel should let them in.
I have to laugh at all of the brilliant postings, about “sending her back to Somalia”. Even when there were many cases of Nazi war criminals in the USA, they could not routinely be sent back. First, they had to be denaturalized, by a long and cumbersome process. In order to take a person’s citizenship away (who is a naturalized citizen), a court must prove that they lied on during the naturalization process. With the case of the Nazis, the Justice Department had to show that they persecuted a group based upon race, religion, etc. Then, once they were denaturalized, the deportation process began, which was very lengthy. The whole process averaged12-15 years, or longer. In the case of the Somali-American Congresswoman, the government has no legal grounds to take away her citizenship and deport her. We may not like her political or personal views, but that in itself is not a crime. The Israelis may not like letting her visit; however, I think that by not letting her enter Israel, the Israelis will have a PR problem. The Shin Bet can monitor her activities while she is visiting. If she causes trouble, she can be asked to leave.
no question, you cant let her in, I don’t care if she is the chair of foreign relations, her fellow ungrateful Bantu aka Ethiopian “Jews” will rile her up about false claims of “racism” “brutality” and other liberal garbage.
she will say she is visiting Palestine, not Israel. should Israel let her in? absolutely NOT ! she can say whatever, the hell with her.
You can really see the evil on this machsheifa’s ugly face.
What a wicked self hater this Israeli is and she is stupid enough to malign president Trump even though he has about a 100% approval rating among Israelis!
Just do not understand why Omar is not being investigated by FBI?????