Ilhan Omar: We will never allow people to make us feel like our certificate is less than theirs.
Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib have no intentions of bowing to either Donald Trump or Benjamin Netanyahu or anyone for that matter. They will stand their ground until they can go to Israel with the freedom that any other Congressperson has. After all, they represent a vote in the House for the massive aid that the country receives every year.
Ilhan Omar & Rashida Tlaib speak
The Congressional duo had a press conference in St. Paul, MN yesterday. They both pointed out that their mission to Israel would have had them speaking to both Palestinians and Israelis.
A reporter asked Rashida Tlaib about her change of heart after she first accepted Israel's offer to visit her grandmother.
“I think my grandmother said it beautifully when she said I’m her “Asfour.” Asfour in Arabic means her bird.” Rashida Tlaib said. “She said I’m her dream manifested. I am her free bird. So why would I come back and be caged and bow down when my election rose her head up high? We all decided as a family that I could not go until I was a free, American, United States congresswoman.”
Near the end of the interview, Omar had a one piercing statement of strength and resolve.
“There are so many people invested in our pain, in our struggle, in seeing us broken,” Omar said. “And the one thing that is important to me more than anything as we fight for the most marginalized people is that we have our internal liberation carry us to our external liberation. And there is no way. I told Rashida, 'Before you sent that letter you should have called me.' There is no way, that we are ever going to allow people to tear us down, to see us cry out of pain, to make us feel like our certificate is less than theirs. So we are going to hold our heads up high. And we are going to fight this administration and the oppressive Netanyahu administration until we take our last breath.”
