• Israel denies entry to US democratic deputies. Netanyahu: "They just wanted to hurt Israel"

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August 16, 2019Tackling. Israel will allow US Democratic deputy Rashida Tlaib entry to visit her 90-year-old grandmother in the West Bank. Interior Minister Aryeh Deri announced the approval of the humanitarian request presented by Tlaib. The announcement comes in the aftermath of the ban on entry to Tlaib and the other US Democratic deputy Ilhan Omar , who intended to make a four-day visit to the Palestinian territories.

The two democratic deputies, the first Muslim women to be elected to the US Congress, support the Bds movement, which promotes the international boycott of Israel.

The decision taken yesterday by Israeli authorities came shortly after an intervention by US President Donald Trump, who had asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to deny entry visas to the two deputies, with whom he had engaged in a bitter controversy in recent weeks.

After the entry ban, Tlaib applied for a humanitarian permit to visit her Palestinian relatives living in the West Bank, "especially my grandmother, who is 90 and lives in Beit Ur al-Fouqa", as we read in the request presented to the Interior Minister Deri.

Tlaib was born in Detroit to Palestinian parents who had emigrated to the United States. Beit Ur al-Fouqa is a town west of Ramallah. "This would be my last chance to see her," Tlaib wrote in her request, assuring her that "I will respect the restrictions and will not promote the boycott of Israel during my visit." Minister Deri, in announcing the granting of permission to the US MP, expressed the hope that Tlaib will keep its commitments.