Jewish organizations are criticizing Democrat Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan for calling Israel a racist state that deprived her grandmother of the COVID-19 vaccination.
“I think it’s really important to understand Israel is a racist state and that they would deny Palestinians, like my grandmother, access to a vaccine, that they don’t believe that she’s an equal human being that deserves to live, deserves to be able to be protected by this global pandemic,” Tlaib told Democracy Now! host Ann Goodman in response a to a question about Israel vaccinating about 20 percent of its citizens. “And it’s really hard to watch as this apartheid state continues to deny their own neighbors, the people that breathe the same air they breathe, that live in the same communities.”
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She went on to scold the United States for allegedly enabling Israel and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for “not following international human rights.”
Both the American Jewish Committee and StopAntisemitism.org called Tlaib out for her comments, explaining that Israel is giving vaccines to both Jewish and Arab Israelis. Under the Oslo Accords, StopAntisemitism.org pointed out, the Palestinian National Authority is responsible for the health of those in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank and rejected Israel’s help.
“@RashidaTlaib, you are entitled to your own opinions, not your own facts,” the American Jewish Committee tweeted. “Israel is giving the vaccine to all its citizens, Jewish and Arab alike. The PA, responsible for Palestinian health care, has rejected Israel’s help and ordered its own vaccines.”
“A sitting Congresswoman (Palestinian) is clueless about the Oslo Accords,” watchdog group StopAntisemitism.org wrote before quoting the section that delineates the responsibility of the PA to handle the health and vaccinations of Palestinians.
Israeli health minister Yuli Edelstein told CNN regarding his country’s rollout of the vaccine: “Our calculation was based on Israeli citizens. If we’ll get to the situation where everyone in the country who wants to be vaccinated is vaccinated, we will be more than ready to share the vaccines with our neighbors. At this stage we are talking about Israeli citizens I haven’t heard of any obligation of Israel to pay for the vaccines for someone else.”
Israel has has already quietly provided vaccinations to the Palestinian Authority even while the PA attempted to deny it. Israel provides significant support to the PA because the splintered Palestinian government has been unable to care for residents.
The vaccination comment is not the first time Tlaib has attacked Israel without the facts.
–Dwight Widaman | Metro Voice