HAIFA, Friday, August 16, 2019 (WAFA) – Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel criticized today the Israeli government‘s decision to bar US Congresswomen Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar from entering the country next week, stressing that the ban “exposes the depth of Israel‘s intolerance towards anyone who dares to criticize its policies.”

Adalah said in a statement that “Israel employs numerous laws and policies to target, silence, and punish those who support Palestinian rights in any form, including barring entry to foreigners accused of endorsing nonviolent boycotts of Israel.”

It said these measures are being mirrored in the US, where the government is similarly delegitimizing free speech for Palestinian rights and denying entry visas to prominent Palestinian activists from the occupied territories.

“Israel must allow the congresswomen and their delegation to freely enter and travel around the country, and must end all its discriminatory efforts to block individuals - especially of Palestinian descent - from doing the same,” Adalah concluded its statement.

M.K.