Arab MK Aida Touma-Sliman (Hadash) sent official letters of solidarity to Democratic Congresswomen Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib in the wake of President Donald Trump’s Twitter attacks on them, Haaretz reported Thursday.
The letter was meant “to express my appreciation for your tireless work on behalf of the Palestinian people” and “in light of President Trump’s recent attacks", according to the report.
“When I read of President Trump’s vicious attacks, I was struck by the similarity between his racist incitement and that practiced by his close ally PM Benjamin Netanyahu,” wrote Touma-Sliman.
She added that she is committed to doing “whatever is in our power” to enable the congresswomen's planned visit to Israel and the Palestinian Authority and asked to meet to with them together with "people who are fighting for peace and freedom from within Israel – Palestinians and Jews alike."
Touma-Sliman asked to share with them her "perspective on the occupation, on the discrimination faced by Palestinian citizens within Israel, and on the particular challenges facing Palestinian women."
Trump came under fire from Democrats this week when he criticized four Democratic congresswomen on Twitter, telling them they should "go back" to the countries that they came from and criticizing the Democratic party for condoning their “disgraceful behavior”.
On Monday, Trump doubled down on the criticism, calling on the congresswomen to apologize to the US, to Israel, and to the “office of the presidency”.
Though he did not mention any of the woman by name, he is widely believed to have targeted his tweets at Omar, Tlaib, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ayanna Pressley.
Ocasio-Cortez has come under fire after saying the United States operated "concentration camps" on its southern border, she previously said that cutting military and economic aid to Israel as a way to signal opposition to Israeli policies should be “on the table.”
Omar was criticized after she suggested on Twitter that Republicans were attacking her at the behest of the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC. She subsequently issued a half-hearted apology before ultimately deleting the controversial tweets.
This week, Omar introduced a House resolution that "opposes unconstitutional legislative efforts to limit the use of boycotts to further civil rights at home and abroad," and affirms Americans' right to pursue boycotts "in pursuit of civil and human rights at home and abroad."
Tlaib claimed in an interview in May that Palestinian Arabs living in the British Mandate prior to the establishment of the State of Israel “provided” a safe haven to Jews after the Holocaust.
She has also backed BDS and, when asked in a past television interview whether she would vote against military aid to Israel when she goes to Congress, replied “absolutely.”