MK to Tlaib: Arabs gave nothing to Jews except wars and death

Likud MK Michal Shir slams US Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib for saying her Palestinian ancestors provided “safe haven for Jews.”

By HAGAY HACOHEN, JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Democratic US congressional candidate Rashida Tlaib before Election Day in Michigan, 2018. (photo credit: REUTERS/REBECCA COOK)
Democratic US congressional candidate Rashida Tlaib before Election Day in Michigan, 2018.
(photo credit: REUTERS/REBECCA COOK)
Likud MK Michal Shir slammed US Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib on Sunday, saying that “Arabs gave nothing to post-Holocaust Jews except wars and death.”
The MK was responding to comments Tlaib had made, saying she was happy that her Palestinian ancestors provided a “safe haven for Jews” after the Holocaust.
Tlaib's interview, featured on a Skullduggery podcast titled "From Rashida with Love," which now appears to be "not found or is unavailable," discusses the past, the present and the future of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Suggesting that the US congresswoman should “open a history book once in a while,” Shir said Jews arriving in Israel had to face “repeated terror and rejection from the Arabs” and “had no choice but to defend themselves.”
She also suggested Tlaib “thank the IDF” for protecting Muslim Israeli citizens from Hamas, ISIS, and Islamic Jihad “who are only waiting for a chance to put their hands on them.”            
"There’s always kind of a calming feeling when I think of the tragedy of the Holocaust, that it was my ancestors – Palestinians – who lost their land and some lost their lives, their livelihood, their human dignity and their existence, in many ways, has been wiped out… in the name of trying to create a safe haven for Jews, post-Holocaust, post-tragedy and the horrific persecution of Jews across the world at that time. And I love the fact that it was my ancestors that provided that in many ways,” Tlaib had said.
Tlaib also attacked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying: "We can smell it from far away that, no, you don’t want to look at my grandmother in the eye, Netanyahu, and say ‘You are equal to me. You are as human as I am to you.’”
When asked about the two-state solution, Tlaib criticized Netanyahu and said she does not believe a two-state solution is currently possible because Netanyahu's doctrine prevents it. She added that the only way for a two-state solution to be possible today would be if Netanyahu "gets up tomorrow morning and decides: ‘I’m going to take down the walls, I’m not going to expand settlements, enough is enough.'"