Tlaib called Israel’s demolition an example of “apartheid,” failed to mention that Muntasir Shalabi murdered a yeshiva student and shot two others.
by Algemeiner Staff
US Representative Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) became the target of angry criticism on Twitter after she denounced the IDF’s demolition of the home of a Palestinian terrorist without mentioning his victim.
The Palestinian-American Muntasir Shalabi murdered yeshiva student Yehuda Guetta, 19, in May at Tapuah Junction in the West Bank, and wounded two other students, leading Israel to demolish his home last week.
Over a video of the house being destroyed, Tlaib tweeted on Saturday, “Reminder: Apartheid government is not a democracy. We must stop our taxpayer dollars being used to violently oppress the Palestinians.”
“Just this week, Israel demolished and leveled the home of a Palestinian family in the beloved village of Turmusaya. For what? To dehumanize,” she claimed.
Tlaib made no mention of Shalabi’s atrocity or its victims.
Activist Hen Mazzig commented, “Here is Rashida Tlaib mourning the loss of a home that belonged to a terrorist who gunned down a random Jewish teenager.”
“Rashida has not mourned his murder — nor even acknowledged it,” Mazzig said. “His name was Yehuda Guetta.”
The activist group Stop Antisemitism tweeted, “Reminder: a US Congresswoman is defending a murderer who brutally killed a Jewish teenager.”
“Bricks and mortar matter more than human life to Rashida,” they said. “Shameful.”
Writer Shoshanna Keats Jaskoll tweeted, “Reminder: Jewish blood is no longer cheap. The owner of this home killed a 19 yr old and wounded two others. He’s a US citizen and apparently has multiple wives, here and in the US. It might be possible to take you semi seriously if you expressed any integrity in your advocacy.”
Human rights lawyer Arsen Ostrovsky responded, “Of course what Hamas lobbyist @RashidaTlaib omits to mention is fact that this home belonged to a Palestinian terrorist who murdered a Jewish Israeli man.”
The US State Department has also criticized Israel over the demolition of Shalabi’s home, prompting an outraged response from Guetta’s father, Elisha, who told the Times of Israel that the entire family is “shocked that the US is condemning the demolition of [the home of] my son’s murderer and is supporting a terrorist who arrived from the US to carry out a vicious shooting terror attack against innocent Jewish students.”
“It would be expected that the US, which has often been the victim of terrorism, would stand with terror victims rather than with their murderers,” he added.
The Guetta family will soon be filing lawsuits in Israel and the US demanding the seizure of all of Shalabi’s assets.