The grandmother of Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) said that she still hopes to see her granddaughter after Tlaib abruptly canceled her planned trip to Israel despite being approved for travel by the Israeli government.
Muftia Tlaib, the grandmother, said that she still hopes to see her granddaughter. She said she thought Israeli officials were the ones that wouldn’t let the lawmaker travel to the homeland of her parents.
“I can’t do anything. I’m really very sad. I hope, inshallah [God willing], that she will come back. I’m waiting for her.”
The grandmother told Fox News on Friday night that she was holding out hope. “I’m going to prepare for her meat and grape leaves and figs. I hope to see her,” she said.
One of Tlaib’s uncles claimed that Israel didn’t want Tlaib to visit because she would witness the reality on the ground.
“They don’t want her to come. They prevent her because they know she’s coming here to see in her own eyes with the delegation the suffering of the Palestinian people and the violations of the occupation on the people’s lives here,” her uncle told Fox through a translator.
“We have only told her that Rashida may not come, so she can get used to the idea. In time, we will tell her that she is not coming. It will be very disappointing for her,” he said.
He said the American lawmaker texted him on Friday, saying, “I am not coming under these conditions.”
Tlaib wrote a letter to Israeli authorities after they announced she and Omar wouldn’t be allowed into Israel, saying a visit might be the last time she would be able to see her grandmother and vowing to “not promote boycotts against Israel during my visit.” Israeli’s interior minister, Arye Deri, approved the request on Friday, but Tlaib said she'd changed her mind.
“When I won, it gave the Palestinian people hope that someone will finally speak the truth about the inhumane conditions. I can’t allow the State of Israel to take away that light by humiliating me & use my love for my sity [grandmother] to bow down to their oppressive and racist policies,” she said in a statement.