Rashida Tlaib and Omar called decision to block their entry an attempt ‘to suppress our ability to do our jobs’ in press conference

The Minnesota representative Ilhan Omar called on her colleagues to visit Israel to prevent Donald Trump and the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, “succeed in hiding the cruel reality of the occupation from us”.

Omar’s comments came to in an emotional press conference on Monday, following Israel’s decision last week to deny her and the Michigan representative Rashida Tlaib entry to the country amid pressure from Donald Trump. Omar called Israel’s decision to block the planned official visit “nothing less than an attempt by an ally of the United States to suppress our ability to do our jobs as elected officials” and questioned the billions of dollars in US aid to the country.

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“As legislators we have an obligation to see the reality there for ourselves,” Omar told reporters during a press conference at the Minnesota state house in St Paul on Monday. “So I would encourage my colleagues to visit. Meet with the people we were going to meet with, see the things we were going to see, hear the stories we were going to hear.”

Omar said Israel’s decision was “not consistent with democracy” and not reflective of actions taken by an ally of the US.

Israel is the top recipient of US foreign aid and the country has long enjoyed bipartisan support. But Israel’s decision to bar the congresswomen entry threatens to undermine those ties, especially at a time when Democrats are increasingly critical of Netanyahu and his close alliance with Trump.

Tlaib likened the decision to a ban imposed on a member of Congress seeking entry to South Africa during apartheid in 1972.

“History does have a habit of repeating itself,” Tlaib said. Omar later added that the difference between then and now was that the US government was promoting the ban as opposed to actively working to lift it.

“When you are a United States citizen, your president, your ambassadors, your state department [work] on your behalf,” Omar said. “They defend you and fight for your right to freedom of speech [and] to freedom of movement. To have an administration and a president and an ambassador that is not doing that puts fear in many people’s hearts.”

She added: “We must be asking, as Israel’s ally, that Netanyahu stop the expansion of settlements on Palestinian land and ensure full rights for Palestinians if we are to give them aid.”

At the urging of Trump, Netanyahu denied entry to Omar and Tlaib, the first two Muslim women elected to Congress, over their support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS) for Palestinian rights.

Israel later relented and said the Detroit-born Tlaib could visit her 90-year-old grandmother, who lives in the occupied West Bank, if she did not promote the international boycott of Israel.

Tlaib initially agreed but, facing criticism from some Palestinian activists, she changed her mind and announced that she would not travel to the country under “these oppressive conditions meant to humiliate me”.

Trump has tried to make Omar, Tlaib and the other half of the foursome known as “the Squad” – all popular progressive congresswomen of color – the face of the Democratic party.

In a series of racist tweets, Trump told the lawmakers to “go back” to their home countries. All are US citizens, and only Omar was not born in the US.

At the press conference, Tlaib tearfully described her decision not to make the trip after a late-night phone call with her family.

“I think my grandmother said it beautifully when she said I’m her asfour. Asfour in Arabic means her bird. 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?” Tlaib said, her voice cracking. She added: “We all decided as a family that I could not go until I was a free, American, United States congresswoman.”