>> Last week, the Government of Israel banned representatives Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib
from traveling to the country.
And Benjamin Netanyahu said that their support of the BDS movement is the reason why they've
been banned from travel.
Then there was some news that they would allow Representative Rashida Tlaib to enter the
country to visit her grandmother with a humanitarian reason.
However, Tlaib decided no, I'm not gonna go, because I'm gonna take a stand here.
And talk about how going as someone who's gonna be oppressed is not right the way to
go about it.
Now today, both congresswomen held a press conference and shared their perspective and
their version of what's going on.
Let's take a look at this next video of Rashida Tlaib.
>> As a young girl visiting Palestine to see my grandparents and extended family.
I watched as my mother had to go to dehumanizing checkpoints.
Even though she was a United States citizen and proud American, I was there when my city
was getting a terrible car accident.
And my cousins and I cried, so she could have access to the best hospitals which were in
Jerusalem.
I remember shaking with fear when checkpoints appeared in the small village of Beit Ur al-Fauqa.
Tanks and guns everywhere.
I remember visiting East Jerusalem with my then husband and him escorted off the bus.
Although he was a United States citizen, just so security forces could've harass him.
All I can do, as my city's granddaughter, as the granddaughter of a woman who lives
in occupied territory is to elevate her voice.
By exposing the truth the only way I know how, as my Detroit Public Schools teachers
taught me by humanizing the pain of oppression.
>> So later in the press conference, she explained in detail her reasons for not taking Israel
up on its offer to allow her to visit her grandmother on humanitarian grounds.
But I just wanna note that what Netanyahu did here.
And remember, it was something that was suggested by Donald Trump via Twitter.
Netanyahu took advantage of the opportunity, ban them from visiting.
They actually did publicity for the BDS movement.
>> 100%.
>> Yeah.
>> I grow more convinced of it every single day.
And they also showed what hypocrites they are, they don't believe in free speech at
all, they never have.
But not the right wing in Israel, not the right wing in America, they hate free speech.
>> Well, hold on, hold on.
So you're right in that the right wing in America will pretend they care about free
speech.
But all they really care about is being able to go on college campuses to give $50,000
speeches, right?
They're worried about their own pocketbooks.
But I do want to note that even APAC came out against what the Israeli government did
here.
>> Yeah, but the right wing in America is represented by Donald Trump.
He's the one that asked the right wing in Israel to do it in the first place.
>> That's true.
>> Okay, right-wing gets absolutely no pass, total and utter hypocrites.
Whenever you see any of them complaining about free speech, number one, know that there's
money on the line for them, okay?
And you should laugh in their face, they hate free speech.
Now, on to the core of this issue.
Look, I have a confession.
I think that I have not been sufficiently.
I think I've been clear but not sufficiently strong enough.
I mean, it's a funny way thing to say it, but raged enough about the plight of the Palestinians.
And I think I thought about it over the weekend because of Bill Maher.
That outrageous bigot that HBO continues to employ.
And every time he talks about it, he puts out Muslims and he hates Muslims, it's super
obvious.
And no, it's not because he's an atheist, I'm an atheist, I think all the religions
are completely wrong.
No, Bill Maher hates Muslims.
He called the Palestinians, basically, doing scare quotes, saying a peaceful people.
Nah, that's a racist thing to say like as if Palestinians are not peaceful in totality.
And that's what he thinks.
He thinks Muslims and Palestinians in particular are violent animals.
And they should be caged up and occupied.
That's what Bill Maher thinks.
That's what the right wing of this country thinks.
I'm gonna talk more about it in the last half hour of The Young Turks.
That's for the members, we'll tackle it then.
But in this case, I think that I was counted by the fact that I was born in a Muslim family,
I'm an atheist now.
But, hey, if you defend the Palestinians more forcefully, you're gonna get called an anti-Semite.
And that's a fact that's happened.
It's happened all across this issue for the entire time I've been doing news and not about
me.
I'm so strongly in favor of protecting Jewish Americans that I don't get it often, cuz it'd
be preposterous to say that about me.
But it doesn't stop anybody from saying anything anyway.
But anyone who defends Palestinians forcefully gets that smear 100% of the time in America,
okay?
But I'm done with it, okay?
Palestinians are human beings.
If you treat them as anything but human beings, we're gonna come for you, rhetorically, politically,
and I'm done with it.
I can't stand it anymore being treated like that.
And you're gonna bring a US citizen in, because they're Palestinian.
You're gonna make them go through those checkpoints and dehumanize them and humiliate them and
embarrass them.
Israel, if they ever do that to another US citizen again, should never get a cent from
America.
Let alone the $140 billion we have given them, cuz that is a racist thing to do.
Call it what it is and I can't take it anymore.
The Ben Shapiros and the Bill Mahers, and the Donald Trumps, all going out there, and
the Sam Harrises.
Well, Muslims, I mean, their religion is violent, they're irridemable.
So you know what?
We're gonna just keep them locked up, locked up, locked up.
And then they're not allowed to do violence, I 100% agree.
But wait, they're not allowed to go seek statehood in the United Nations, so no diplomatic route.
Why, why couldn't they?
Israel got formed by going to the United Nations, why can't the Palestinians go?
No, no antisemitic.
What on God's green earth are you talking about?
That's not antisemitic, that's taking a diplomatic route, knowing that they also can't do a boycott
and can't do economic means.
So what's left?
The only thing left is bow your head and realize we're gonna call you subhuman and lock you
up for the rest of your life.
Well, my answer that is hell no.
It's about damn time all of us stood up for Palestinians.
They're human beings.
Treat them like human beings.
It is definitely not too much to ask for.
And if you don't agree with that, there is something wrong with you.
You become so blinded by your hatred and your fear that you become whatever you are in any
other issue.
You become a right-winger on this issue.
No no no no, they might might might might one day do violence, 1 of them or 10 of them
of a 100 of them.
So millions of them will keep locked up in a cage.
We'll call it an occupation.
And we'll crush them and we won't give them statehood.
And every single day we will humiliate them.
But god forbid they should, because they're irredeemable.
My state violence doesn't count, only when they do violence accounts.
When I crush them every day, it doesn't count.
Goddamn wrong, it does count, state violence matters.
You could argue that that's state terrorism against millions of people.
>> And I really don't wanna get off on too long of a tangent on Bill Maher.
But if I recall correctly, Bill Maher was outraged at the First Amendment rights of
conservative speakers being violated on liberal college campuses.
He felt that college students are being too sensitive.
And that they should allow people with different ideologists to come on to their campuses and
speak.
Which I actually happen to agree with him on that, right?
But why is it that a nonviolent movement like BDS is something that should be squashed?
Why is it that that is the one thing that isn't protected or shouldn't be protected,
according to people like Bill Maher?
>> Because he's a bigoted hypocrite.
I'm gonna spend a long time in the Post Game talking about it.
Do you wanna hear that, become a member?
Tyt.com/join.
Actually support progressive media that gives a damn, instead of a media that every single
day crushes the hopes, dreams of Palestinians.
He called it virtue signalling.
Yeah, cuz that would mean you have virtue, right?
No, no, hey, you wanna treat Palestinians as human beings, that's virtue signalling.
Anyway, let's go back Tlaib.
>> So in this next clip, Tlaib explains why she did not take the Israeli government's
offer to allow her to visit her grandmother on humanitarian grounds.
>> I spoke to my family.
And I think my grandmother said it beautifully when she said I'm her esfwr.
Esfwr, in Arabic, means her bird.
And she said, I'm her dream manifested.
I am her free bird.
So why would I come back and be caged and bow down when my election rolls her head up
high gave her dignity for the first time?
And so through tears, at 3 o'clock in the morning, we all decided as a family that I
could not go until I was a free American United States congresswoman.
Coming there not only to see my grandmother, but to talk to Palestinian and Israeli organizations
that believed that my grandmother deserved human dignity as much as anyone else does.
>> Look, I love America, that's why we came here.
But I rage against the American government when it does something wrong, the Iraq War,
etc.
And I want Israel to be safe.
I want Israel to be secure and independent.
I don't want anybody touching Israel.
I don't want any wars.
But if you're not reaching against the endless occupation of the Palestinians, well, you're
not doing Israel any service.
You're not helping them at all.
You're ruining their morality.
They have no moral high ground left at all.
You're not doing them any favors.
And if you care about Israel, as I care about American and I care about Israel, you have
got to make sure that they're doing the right thing.
And if they're not, you've got to say it.
If you don't say it, then they're gonna continue to occupy them for the rest of time.
Let the Palestinians go.
Let them go, let
them go, let them go.