Freshman Democratic Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib excoriated Israel and news coverage of the ongoing wave of rocket attacks on the Jewish state while calling to “Free Palestine” in a tweet Sunday.
Tlaib, who represents Michigan’s 13th district in the US House of Representatives, blasted coverage of ongoing rocket and missile attacks by Hamas and other Gaza-based terror groups on Israel, calling the news reports on the attacks “dehumanizing” to Palestinian Arabs.
“When will the world stop dehumanizing our Palestinian people who just want to be free? Headlines like this & framing it in this way just feeds into the continued lack of responsibility on Israel who unjustly oppress & target Palestinian children and families,” Tlaib tweeted, adding “#FreePalestine.”
The comments came Sunday in response to a tweet by Yousef Munayyer, executive director of the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights.
Munayyer had tweeted a screenshot of a news article on the Gaza attacks on Israel which read “Gaza militants fire 250 rockets, and Israel responds with airstrikes.”
In his tweet, Munayyer called the headline “stunningly irresponsible” and “misleading”, saying it ignored Israeli efforts to defend its border from rioters in the Gaza Strip on Friday.
“Israel shot dozens of unarmed Palestinian protestors in Gaza on Friday and killed 4 Palestinians, including two protesters, in Gaza before any projectiles were launched.”
Despite Munayyer’s claim that the rioters were unarmed, two Israeli soldiers were shot and wounded during the riots, prompting IDF forces to return fire.
Five Israelis have been killed in the rocket and missile attacks since Saturday, with dozens more wounded.
Thirteen Gazans, including six who have been identified as Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists, were killed in Israeli retaliatory strikes.