Rashida Tlaib Hits Back At Marco Rubio In BDS Twitter Feud
Image by Getty Images
Representative Rashida Tlaib fired back at critics like Marco Rubio who claimed she was accusing Jews of ‘dual loyalty’ in a tweet about his proposed new anti-BDS law.
The newly minted congresswoman said she was referring to American values when she said critics of BDS should “remember what country they represent” — a phrase that Rubio called a classic anti-Semitic canard about Jews favoring Israel.
This “dual loyalty” canard is a typical anti-Semitic line#BDS isn’t about freedom & equality, it’s about destroying #Israel
And if boycotting #Israel is constitutionally protected, then boycotting companies that boycott #Israel is also constitutionally protected https://t.co/6yBM0bQB5L
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) January 7, 2019
Tlaib, an American of Palestinian descent, wrote back and accused him of “seeking to strip Americans of their Constitutional right to free speech.”
Sen. Rubio, it’s clear my earlier tweet was critical of U.S. Senators like yourself, who are seeking to strip Americans of their Constitutional right to free speech. https://t.co/xFn2XeCqsZ
— Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) January 7, 2019
The controversy, she claimed, was created to deflect from the government shutdown, which is now in its third week.
The American people need Trump and Republican Senators to focus on ending the shutdown instead of inventing controversy to distract from your inaction.
— Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) January 7, 2019
Alyssa Fisher is a news writer at the Forward. Email her at [email protected], or follow her on Twitter at @alyssalfisher
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
