Rashida Tlaib slammed for false anti-Israel tweet

The Palestinian-American congresswoman was taken to task after her post about Israeli soldiers beating Palestinians is proven to be a lie.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Palestinian-American congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) was slammed this week by Jewish organizations and outed by Twitter itself after falsely tweeting that Israeli soldiers had beaten innocent Palestinian teens.

One of the leaders of the so-called Squad of progressive and anti-Israel Democrats, Tlaib had tweeted a video Sunday from the Institute for Middle East Understanding (IMEU), a pro-Palestinian NGO, which had claimed it had footage showing IDF forces attacking “Palestinians celebrating the first day of the holy month of Ramadan in occupied Jerusalem.” She commented, “This is the violent apartheid government of Israel. Don’t look away.”

The problem was – as the social media site pointed out in a context box – that “This was not an attack by Israeli police. A brawl broke out amongst young Palestinians at Damascus Gate & Israeli police separated them to restore peace.” Twitter also attached a link to a Jerusalem Post article covering the incident.

The video was subsequently deleted, but not the congresswoman’s comment, which has by now been viewed some 1.5 million times.

Pro-Israel groups immediately jumped on Tlaib, both for what she had done and not done.

“Please stop with the lies!” StopAntisemitism tweeted back the same day. “Israeli police came to stop different groups of Palestinian teenagers from killing each other and causing more harm/damage than they already were.”

On Monday, the watchdog group added, “Why have you not deleted your tweet yet? It’s is [sic] false and you are doing nothing but inciting more hatred with your lies.”

HonestReporting tweeted more moderately, “No Rashida! Palestinian teens were fighting each other and causing a public disturbance. Israeli police came in to restore the peace. Spreading lies and misinformation is unbecoming of a congresswoman.”

Arsen Ostrovsky, an international human rights lawyer and CEO of The International Legal Forum, countered one image with another on Tlaib’s page. He showed a picture of thousands of Arabs praying together on the Temple Mount, saying, “Actually THIS is Israel. Peaceful Friday Ramadan prayers in Jerusalem. But don’t let the facts and relentless Jews hatred get in your way.”

The Republican Jewish Coalition, which supports the GOP on the grassroots level, did not limit its criticism to the Michigan representative alone.

“Another day, another blatant anti-Israel lie by @RashidaTlaib – and no one in House Democratic Party leadership will hold her accountable,” the group posted.

A few House Democrats have pushed back at Tlaib at times, but she has never been punished by the party itself for her hateful comments.

The pro-BDS congresswoman has made many antisemitic and anti-Israel remarks in the four years she has served in the House.. The charge of Israel being “racist” and an “apartheid” state is among her favorite false statements, and she can always be counted on to blast Israeli attempts to uproot Palestinian terrorism, wholly focusing on the “Palestinians as victims” narrative.

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