Rashida Tlaib

Rashida Tlaib accuses pro-Israel Jews of “dual loyalty,” but proudly sells “Gaza” merch on her website, pointed out a popular Israeli blogger.

By United with Israel Staff

On Tuesday, Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib was called out for “hawking ‘Gaza’ T-Shirts” online by popular Israeli blogger Dave Lange, who runs the Israellycool.com site.

“Imagine if a Jewish congressman was hawking t-shirts in support of Israel. No doubt many people, including congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, would accuse him of dual loyalty,” said Lange

The post went up in response to a tweet from Tlaib advertising the new T-Shirts. Lange pointed out it is particularly ironic that the congresswoman is shilling Palestinian merch when she has accused Jews who support Israel of dual loyalty on a number of accusations.

The nasty anti-Semitic “dual loyalty” canard is a popular theme for anti-Israel activists. Tlaib invoked it in 2019 when she posted to Twitter that elected officials in the U.S. who oppose anti-boycott legislation “forgot what country they represent,” implying their allegiance is to Israel and not the United States.

Congressman Marco Rubio responded, ““This ‘dual loyalty’ canard is a typical anti-Semitic line. BDS isn’t about freedom and equality, it’s about destroying Israel. And if boycotting Israel is constitutionally protected, then boycotting companies that boycott Israel is also constitutionally protected.”

Tlaib’s fellow anti-Israel colleague Ilhan Omar has also promoted the dual loyalty canard on a number of occasions, including an incident in which she accused pro-Israel lobbyists of bribing politicians, tweeting “it’s all about the Benjamins.”

Tlaib’s most recent dual loyalty incident occurred two weeks ago when she responded to president-elect Joe Biden’s appointment of Antony Blinken as his secretary of state with a non sequitur referencing Israel.

“So long as [Blinken] doesn’t suppress my First Amendment right to speak out against [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s racist and inhumane policies,” she said in response to a tweet from a Bernie Sanders’ former campaign manager. “The Palestinian people deserve equality and justice.”

Nothing in the post Tlaib responded to mentioned Israel or Netanyahu. Blinken is set to be the first Jewish secretary of state in decades.

In addition to pointing out the irony in Tlaib’s Gaza T-shirt ad, Lange lamented “the utter crassness of a sitting member of Congress hawking t-shirts (especially a socialist one), the attempt to tie in the so-called Palestinian cause to BLM and the inherent falsehoods involved, Gaza is run by an actual terrorist organization.”

“Tlaib is essentially siding with Hamas, who are the cause of the Palestinians’ misery in Gaza,” he added.

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