Israeli left condemns Netanyahu for banning Tlaib, Omar

Left-wing NGOs and parliamentarians condemn the Israeli decision to ban US Congresswomen Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar

By LEON SVERDLOV
Meretz head Nitzan Horowitz (photo credit: AVSHALOM SASSONI/MAARIV)
Meretz head Nitzan Horowitz
(photo credit: AVSHALOM SASSONI/MAARIV)
 Peace Now condemned on Thursday Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his decision to ban the entry of US Congresswomen Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar.
"Prime Minister Netanyahu, who ceremoniously greeted the fascists [Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro], [Filipino President Rodrigo] Duterte and [Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor] Orbán, refuses to let in US public officials only because he is afraid of their criticism of his, or Trump's, policies. This is not how a sovereign democracy acts," Peace Now said in a press release.
It added that "Netanyahu is turning Israel into a cowardly state, that signs treaties with tyrants and is incapable of coping with criticism; one that has no foreign policy, and, most importantly, no backbone."
"In his weakness," Peace Now concluded, "Netanyahu is forsaking the strategic asset that is the [US] bipartisan support for Israel. He lets Israel be taken hostage by an American president for his personal benefit. It is unacceptable that a foreign president, as Israel-loving as he may be, would decide who gets to enter Israel and who doesn't."
Netanyahu's decision was earlier criticized by numerous left-wing MKs, including MK Nitzan Horowitz from the Democratic Union and MK Ahmad Tibi from the Joint List.
MK Horowitz said banning US congresswomen is a "bad decision," adding that it is "not only a confrontation with the Democratic Party, that has always supported Israel, but a fundamental issue: Israel is a free, democratic country, and in such a place [we] don't deal with criticism by banning one's entry or exit."
MK Ahmad Tibi condemned Netanyahu's decision:

 

MK Aida Touma Suleiman responded to the ban calling Netanyahu's relationship with Trump "the Strongmen Alliance," a term used for a self-declared fascist fraction for the Revisionist Zionist Movement, that acted in Palestine in the years 1930-1933.