Rashida Tlaib announced a boycott, but not of Israel
The Michigan Democrat, known for her support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel, is now boycotting Narendra Modi’s address to Congress
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) on March 9, 2023. Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images
By Jacob Kornbluh June 22, 2023
Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a Michigan Democrat known for her support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel, on Tuesday announced that she will boycott Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address to a joint session of Congress Thursday afternoon. Other members of “The Squad” — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Cori Bush of Missouri and Jamaal Bowman — also joined the boycott, mentioning Modi’s targeting of Muslims and religious minorities and censoring of journalists.
Modi is on a three-day visit to the U.S., his first official state visit since being elected in 2014. In 2005, Modi, the leader of India’s nationalist Bharatiya Janata party, was denied a U.S. visa for his failure to halt Hindu riots in 2002 that left more than 1,000 Muslims dead.
This week’s boycott of the Indian leader’s speech to Congress was reminiscent of the 2015 snub of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address. A larger group, however — 58 Democratic members — boycotted that speech in protest of Netanyahu’s move against then-President Barack Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran.
Modi and Netanyahu are close allies.
Critics have characterized Tlaib’s focus on the Jewish state and the BDS movement as obsessive. In 2019, Tlaib and Omar were barred from entering Israel. Tlaib is the only Palestinian American member of Congress; her family lives in the occupied West Bank.
Citing her critique of Modi and support for halting arms sales to Saudi Arabia, Peter Beinart, a columnist and editor-at-large of Jewish Currents, suggested that Tlaib may be more principled in her criticism than she has been given credit for.
“Maybe, just maybe, she’s that rare breed: a politician who defends human rights everywhere, even when it’s safer to look the other way,” Beinart wrote on Twitter earlier this week. “She supports equality under law irrespective of religion, ethnicity, race — everywhere.”
Joel Rubin, a national security expert and former executive director of the American Jewish Congress, said it “seems like boycotting is her method, her way of exerting influence.”
Rubin, who also served as deputy assistant secretary of state in the Obama administration, said Tlaib’s effort may have failed to gain traction because Modi came to the U.S. to engage, rather than to undermine, “American policy or pick a side in American politics.” He compared the Indian prime minister’s tack to Netanyahu’s in 2015, saying, “That’s significantly different.”
Biden met Thursday morning with Modi in the Oval Office, following a welcoming ceremony on the White House’s South Lawn. A group of 75 members of Congress, including prominent Jewish members, sent a letter to the president urging him to press Modi on “the need to protect human rights and democratic values in India.”
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