U.S. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar said earlier this week she is intending to boycott an address by Israeli President Isaac Herzog to the Congress, scheduled for next week. “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 series of tweets on Twitter. The U.S. Democrat was referring to a 2019 decision by the occupying Israeli regime barring her and fellow US Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib from entering the occupied Palestinian territories. Both Tlaib and Omar have are vocal supporters of the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which seeks to press Israel to end its human rights violations against Palestinians. ‘We should not be inviting the President of Israel – a government who under its current prime minister barred the first two Muslim women elected to Congress from visiting the country – to give a joint address to Congress,’ Omar added. “Herzog’s address comes on behalf of the most right-wing government in Israel’s history,” said the lawmaker. She continued, “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.”
Source: En – Palestine news & Information Agency – WAFA