Contradicting Rashida Tlaib’s claims of Israeli oppression and racism, the village in which her grandmother lives is full of luxury items.
By World Israel News Staff
One would be forgiven for thinking that Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s grandmother is suffering a life of poverty in a small dusty Arab village in Samaria given the congresswomen’s charges of Israeli “racism, oppression and injustice,” but the truth appears to be very different, Israel Hayom reports on Thursday.
Tlaib’s grandmother, Muftiya, lives in the village Beit-Ur al-Fauqa. Her home has been described as a modest, one-story home, according to reports. Tlaib said she had hoped to pick figs with her. The image that’s been painted is one of dignified poverty.
However, Israel Hayom took a look at the Facebook profiles of Tlaib’s relatives and a different picture emerges.
“If you look at the Facebook profiles of people who actually live there, you will discover that things are actually not bad at all,” the paper says.
One of the family, Achiam Tlaib, drives a new BMW and lives in a three-story building.
Another, Raja Tlaib, can be seen on Facebook “posing next to his new Mercedes, wearing an expensive suit. He also has pictures showing him working out in a gym that has the latest equipment,” the paper says.
Mawaid Tlaib vacations in Italy. Anas Tlaib enjoys a fancy Mercedes.
Samach Tlaib speeds around in a BMW. Niaf Tlaib prefers a Corvette convertible (a car almost never seen in Israel itself). Israel Hayom says he can be seen standing before his new three-story home under construction.
Rep. Tlaib of Michigan has made much of the “dehumanizing” checkpoints. But Israel Hayom says pictures show her family members visiting sites all over pre-1967 Israel, including Jaffa, Acre and Tel Aviv. Clearly, they have a great deal of freedom of movement.
Statistics back up the anecdotal evidence. The paper cites the World Bank, which reported “in 2014 that the village is one of the richest in the region. The poverty rate in the village stood at 7.4 % in 2014, compared to the overall rate of 21% in the Palestinian Authority.”
It also cites a 2017 Palestinian Authority report that says that the village has 230 households of which “215 structures are considered private residences and four of them are actually single-family homes, attesting to their wealth.
“More than 115 of the households are in apartments that have 5 bedrooms or more, and 65 of the households have four bedrooms.”
Nearly every home has satellite TV, LCD screens, Internet and cell phones. Half own a car, the PA report says.
Israel Hayom asks, “if this is what occupation looks like, perhaps Tlaib and her radical friends got it all wrong?”