Rashida Tlaib, a Democratic representative-elect from Michigan and one of the first Muslim women elected to Congress, will lead a delegation to Palestine in 2019 instead of participating in a sponsored trip to Israel that is traditionally offered to newly-elected members of Congress, The Intercept reported.
The week-long Israel trip, sponsored by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a pro-Israel lobby group, and organised by the American Israel Education Foundation, features a tour of Israel and meetings with Israeli government leaders. The little-known tradition is offered to both Republican and Democratic members of Congress during their freshman year and has attracted criticism for its pro-Israel influence on House members.
Tlaib, the Detroit-born daughter of Palestinian immigrants, told The Intercept that she wants to offer her colleagues an alternate perspective on the Israeli-Palestine conflict.
“I want us to see that segregation and how that has really harmed us being able to achieve real peace in that region,” Tlaib told The Intercept. “I don’t think AIPAC provides a real, fair lens into this issue. It’s one-sided. … [They] have these lavish trips to Israel, but they don’t show the side that I know is real, which is what’s happening to my grandmother and what’s happening to my family there.”
Read the article by Mariano Alfaro in Business Insider Australia.