Rashida Tlaib slammed online for T-shirt that erases Israel from the map
Tlaib was wearing the shirt, which depicts the whole of Israel as Palestine, while promoting Linda Sarsour's new book.
By DONNA RACHEL EDMUNDSRep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) participates in a House Financial Services Committee hearing with Facebook Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg in Washington, U.S., October 23, 2019(photo credit: ERIN SCOTT/REUTERS)
Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib has drawn condemnation online after she posted a photograph to Facebook of herself wearing a T-shirt that erased Israel off the map.Tlaib took the photo to promote activist Linda Sarsour's new book, We Are Not Here To Be Bystanders, but many were more interested in the image on her shirt, which showed the whole of Israel as Palestine enrobed with a black and white chequered keffiyeh, a symbol of Palestinian nationalism.Alex VanNess, Senior Research Analyst with The Clarion Project and founder of the Carmine Strategic Intelligence Group, caustically noted on Twitter: "Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib's T-shirt doesn't exactly scream 'two-state solution.'"In December, Tlaib blamed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Likud Party for the lack of such a solution, saying they “actively fought against a two-state solution and took steps to ensure its demise.”Her comments came during the debate on a House resolution to endorse a two-state solution, which the House passed 226-188. Tlaib did not vote for it.Israel advocate and writer Hen Mazzig, meanwhile, questioned the statement on the shirt in light of both Tlaib and Sarsour's links to Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders.
Sanders surrogate, endorsed by another Sanders campaigner, both made a career out of being anti-Zionists and slipped to Antisemitism multiple times and even acknowledged it.I wonder why they both back him https://t.co/RGwBTLbSEX
Sanders has made much of his Jewish heritage during his campaign to win the nomination, yet has called Netanyahu "racist," and has repeatedly criticized the Jewish state.Sarsour's new book, a memoir about her rise as an activist, was endorsed by Harry Belafonte, who wrote in the foreword: “While we may not have made it to the Promised Land, my peers and I, my brothers and sisters in liberation can rest easy that the future is in the hands of leaders like Linda Sarsour. I have often said to Linda that she embodies the principle and purpose of another great Muslim leader, brother Malcolm X.”Both Tlaib and Sarsour have supported Sanders on the campaign trail.
