Democratic Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib retweeted a claim from a Palestinian politician that a Palestinian boy was “kidnapped and executed” by “a herd of violent Israeli settlers” and “thrown into a water well.”
Wtf? Congresswomen @RashidaTlaib just retweeted a false blood libel against the Jewish people. @TheDemocrats @GOP what is going on in Congress? There must be consequences for anti-Semitism in our nation’s highest governmental body. pic.twitter.com/3ZLnHwCCNX
— Avi Kaner (@AviKaner) January 25, 2020
The unverified claim was being promoted by several anti-Israel Twitter accounts. In fact, the boy was found by Israeli emergency services to have drowned in a cistern, the Jerusalem Post reports. (RELATED: Rashida Tlaib Appears To Blame ‘Israeli Occupation’ For Israeli Teen’s Murder)
Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the PLO Executive Committee whose tweet Tlaib retweeted, later deleted and retracted the tweet.
My apologies for retweeting something that’s not fully verified. It seems that the news of his being kidnapped is not certain.
— Hanan Ashrawi (@DrHananAshrawi) January 25, 2020
Tlaib, however, has yet to apologize for retweeting the false story to her almost 900,000 Twitter followers. She was swiftly condemned on Twitter with many comparing it to a modern day blood libel.
.@RashidaTlaib spreading a blood libel. There is no evidence that the boy was “kidnapped and executed.” He drowned in a cistern near his home. It was Israeli firefighters who found him, not “Israeli forces assaulted search teams.” https://t.co/yZO7jdEgC8 https://t.co/TYu7Gm1IJu
— Lahav Harkov (@LahavHarkov) January 25, 2020
Sickening. Congresswoman @RashidaTlaib now spreading false blood libel against Jews.
Are any Democrats going to be asked about this?
What about Bernie Sanders given she’s a surrogate on his campaign? pic.twitter.com/3Wtg4RzNAD
— (((AG))) (@AGHamilton29) January 25, 2020
Tlaib has come under fire for being one of the most anti-Israeli voices in the United States Congress. She is a supporter of the BDS movement and has compared Israel to Apartheid South Africa. She was also once barred from visiting the country by the Israeli government.
Her comments have been routinely criticized as anti-Semitic with President Trump once saying that she and fellow Congresswoman Ilhan Omar “hate all Jewish people.”