(AP/Alex Brandon)
Rep. Rashida Tlaib

“Pushing a narrative libelously accusing Israel of ethnic cleansing… is wrong and dangerous.”

By United With Israel Staff

American Jewish leaders sharply condemned a tweet by Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) that accused Israel of orchestrating “a decades-long ethnic cleansing project, funded by the U.S.”

Her tweet on Tuesday denounced the annual flag parade outside Jerusalem’s Old City.

Although the march was peaceful and did not pass through the Old City’s Arab Quarter, Tlaib referred to the event as “racist and violent ‘death to Arabs’ marches.” A small number of marchers who chanted “Death to the Arabs” were condemned by Israeli leaders.

Prior to and after the march, Gaza terrorists launched incendiary balloons, sparking a number of wildfires in Israeli areas near the Strip, but Tlaib had nothing to say about that.

Responding to Tlaib, Jonathan Greenblatt, director of the Anti-Defamation League, tweeted, “We can and should have policy debates. But pushing a narrative libelously accusing Israel of ethnic cleansing or not seeing Palestinians as human – or focusing only on Israeli airstrikes without recognizing those are responses to attacks by terrorists – is wrong and dangerous.”

And in a statement to the Los Angeles-based Jewish Journal, Stop Antisemitism Executive Director Liora Rez said, “It’s highly irresponsible of a sitting U.S. Congresswoman to blindly point the finger at our closest [Middle East] ally without mentioning the REASONING behind the bombing of Gaza – the two dozen terror balloons that set the south of Israel ablaze this entire week.”

Tlaib, born and raised in Detroit, is the first Palestinian-American elected to Congress. She supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement as well as the “one-state solution” that would combine Israel and the Palestinian-run territories into one country, resulting in a majority-Palestinian population and thus eliminating the Jewish state.

Due to their support for BDS, Israel barred Tlaib and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) from entering the country in 2019.

American Jewish leaders say tweets by the two Squad members stoke anti-Semitic tensions and create an environment that normalizes Jew-hatred.