American Jewish leaders reacted with outrage at a June 15 tweet by Michigan Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib accusing Israel of a "decades-long ethnic cleansing project," with the ADL’s Jonathan Greenblatt describing the statement as “wrong and dangerous.”
In the wake of Israeli targeted airstrikes against Hamas in response to Hamas launching two dozen incendiary balloons into Israel, Squad-member Tlaib tweeted, “After racist and violent ‘death to Arabs’ marches earlier today in Jerusalem, children in Gaza are being woken by bombs in the middle of the night.”
She added, “Israel’s government doesn’t value Palestinian lives. It has managed a decades-long ethnic cleansing project, funded by the U.S.”
In response, Greenblatt tweeted, “We can and should have policy debates. But pushing a narrative libelously accusing Israel of ethnic cleansing or not seeing Palestinians as human – or focusing only on Israeli airstrikes without recognizing those are responses to attacks by terrorists – is wrong and dangerous.”
Other Jewish leaders similarly condemned Tlaib’s tweet for its inflammatory nature and inaccuracy.
“More lies by you Rashida! The chants were vile and also condemned. Meantime, no mention by you what led to strikes on Gaza, was Hamas firing dozens of incendiary devices on southern Israel, scorching countless amount (of) land. Stop shilling for Hamas and inciting racial hatred!” tweeted international human rights lawyer Arsen Ostrovsky.
Stop Antisemitism Executive Director Liora Rez, in a statement to the Jewish Journal, called Tlaib’s tweet “highly irresponsible.”
“We are the first to say these horrific death chants must always be condemned. That being said, it’s highly irresponsible of a sitting U.S. Congresswoman to blindly point the finger at our closest (Middle East) ally without mentioning the reasoning behind the bombing of Gaza – the two dozen terror balloons that set the south of Israel ablaze this entire week. This type of agricultural terrorism would not be tolerated anywhere in the world and for Tlaib to hold Israel to a different standard is just pure and simple anti-Semitism.”