Rashida Tlaib’s Going To The West Bank, Inviting Other Politicians To Come With

Rashida Tlaib at a news conference outside the U.S. Capitol in February. Image by Getty

By Ari Feldman May 8, 2019

U.S. Representative Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) is inviting members of Congress on a trip to the Palestinian Territories, and it could overlap with AIPAC’s planned trip to Israel, Jewish Insider reported.

The trip will take place in the middle of August, during Congress’ summer recess. That is typically the time when AIPAC’s trip to Israel, led by senior House representatives, occurs.

Tlaib, the first Palestinian-American woman in Congress, told Jewish Insider that the trip is meant to show “the human impact on Palestinians, and what an opportunity of value to have a sitting congressmember that has a living grandmother in the Occupied Territories.”

In March, Tlaib told the Detroit News that the trip would not be paid for with taxpayer dollars, and instead would be underwritten by the Humpty Dumpty Institute, a nonpartisan not-for-profit based in New York. The organization led a trip to the Palestinian Territories for lawmakers last year, and for congressional staffers in 2017.

The AIPAC trips are typically for freshman lawmakers and feature both Democratic and Republican tours, according to The Intercept.

Ari Feldman is a staff writer at the Forward. Contact him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @aefeldman

Ari Feldman is a staff writer at the Forward. He covers Jewish religious organizations, synagogue life, anti-Semitism and the Orthodox world. If you have any tips, you can email him at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @aefeldman.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO