Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Rep. Jamaal Bowman will not attend the joint address to both houses of the US Congress by President Herzog next week, they said on Thursday.
"There is no way in hell I am attending the joint session address from a president whose country has banned me and denied Rashida Tlaib the ability to see her grandma," Omar wrote in a lengthy Twitter thread that was partly in all-capital letters.
There is no way in hell I am attending the joint session address from a President whose country has banned me and denied @RashidaTlaib the ability to see her grandma. A thread
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) July 13, 2023
The Congresswoman referred to a 2019 decision not to let her and her colleague from Michigan into Israel under a law allowing the government to bar the entry of advocates of boycotting the Jewish State. The organization that planned their trip, Miftah, includes members that supported terrorism against Israel. The NGO published the blood libel on its website, in an article claiming that Jews use the blood of Christians in their Passover rituals.
Herzog's upcoming address to the US government
Herzog is set to address both houses of Congress next Wednesday, as well as to meet with US President Joe Biden at the White House. The visit comes as Biden has called the current Israeli cabinet the "most extreme" he has ever seen and declined to invite Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Washington over its policies.
Displaying an apparent unfamiliarity with the role of the president in Israel or Herzog's political history as a former Labor leader who ran against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Omar said that "Herzog's address comes on behalf of the most right-wing government in Israel's history."
"The United States can and should use its diplomatic tools to engage with the Israeli government, but giving the current government the honor of a joint televised address sends the absolute wrong signal at the wrong time," she wrote.
She quoted Netanyahu as having said he seeks to "'crush' Palestinian hopes of statehood," and criticized recent IDF antiterrorism action in Jenin. She said the raid "killed at least a dozen people," without noting that they were all confirmed terrorists.
In addition, Omar expressed concern about the Israeli government for advocating judicial reform, about two weeks after she made a statement saying the US Supreme Court was corrupt and took illegitimate actions, following rulings striking down affirmative action and student debt relief.
Omar also took issue with National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir saying that Israel is "no longer a star" on the American flag, which he said in response to Biden's criticism of the current government this week.