Israeli occupation forces and settlers in Hebron’s Shuhada Street in February. Israel has closed the once busy market street to Palestinians since 1994. Representatives Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib had planned to visit the occupied West Bank city during a congressional visit banned by Israel this week. Wisam Hashlamoun APA images

In a series of Tweets on Friday remarkable for their clarity and honesty, Congresswoman Ilhan Omar has laid out Israel’s crimes and abuses of Palestinians.

On Thursday, Israel confirmed that it would bar Omar and fellow Democratic lawmaker Rashida Tlaib from traveling on a congressional delegation to Israel and the occupied West Bank.

The information Omar provides will not be new to many readers of this publication. But it is almost unheard of for a member of the United States Congress to use their platform to make it available to an even wider audience.

In an attempt to prove to a mostly shielded American audience the facts of the Israeli occupation, Omar often uses Israeli sources to document Israeli abuses and violations of human rights and international law.

Such sources can be valuable, but one hopes her exceptional courage will also mean she can use more Palestinian sources to document what their occupiers do to them.

Her recommendation that Twitter users follow the human rights group Al-Haq is an excellent start.

“Let’s be clear: the goal of our trip was to witness firsthand what is happening on the ground in Palestine and hear from stakeholders – our job as members of Congress,” Omar begins her series of tweets.

“But since we were unable to fulfill our role as legislators, I am sharing what we would have seen.”

“As many of my colleagues have stated in the last 24 hours, we give Israel more than $3 billion in aid every year,” Omar states. “This is predicated on their being an important ally in the region, and the ‘only democracy’ in the Middle East.”

“Denying visits to duly elected members of Congress is not consistent with being either an ally or a democracy,” she adds. “We should be leveraging that aid to stop the settlements and ensure full rights for Palestinians.”

“The occupation is real,” Omar concludes. “Barring members of Congress from seeing it does not make it go away. We must end it – together.”

Here are all of Omar’s tweets:

Let’s be clear: the goal of our trip was to witness firsthand what is happening on the ground in Palestine and hear from stakeholders —our job as Members of Congress.



But since we were unable to fulfill our role as legislators, I am sharing what we would have seen. (THREAD) — Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) August 16, 2019

First, I planned to hold meetings with members of the Knesset (both Jewish and Arab) along with Israeli security officials.



The claims of @IsraeliPM otherwise are not true.



As a delegation, we were also were scheduling a meeting with @USAmbIsrael. https://t.co/tazkSiUYkM — Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) August 16, 2019

Then, the delegation was going to receive a briefing on the Bedouin community in East Jerusalem. For decades, Bedouin homes have been bulldozed and communities have been uprooted in order to build settlements on Palestinian land. — Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) August 16, 2019

Though these settlements are illegal under international law and threaten peace, settlement growth has skyrocketed under Trump. https://t.co/2oCeHr4q2x — Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) August 16, 2019

Then the UN was going to brief us about the effect of humanitarian aid cuts on Palestinians. — Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) August 16, 2019

We planned a video conference with youth from Gaza.



The humanitarian crisis in Gaza is one of the worst in the world—with 97% of water unfit for human consumption and on the verge of collapse. Most of the people in Gaza are children. — Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) August 16, 2019

Israeli officials do not let Members of Congress visit Gaza.https://t.co/66ruDIh5fo — Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) August 16, 2019

We then planned to visit Hebron. Once a bustling economic hub, settlement expansion has resulted in a two-tiered city, with Palestinians under military occupation forced to walk on the opposite side of the street from Israelis. https://t.co/UqTzOMb0Hs — Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) August 16, 2019

77% of shops have closed bc of military occupation. Palestinians walk with garbage nets above their heads, put up to catch trash thrown by settlers. Violent attacks on Palestinians are routine. — Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) August 16, 2019

We were going to receive a tour of the city from @btsisrael, Israeli military veterans who aim to raise awareness about their experiences with the occupation. https://t.co/aEiRnMwWaT — Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) August 16, 2019

We planned to visit the separation wall around historic Bethlehem. Only 13% of Bethlehem is now accessible to Palestinian use.



The wall, built in 2002 against international law, was said at the time to be “temporary.”



It still stands. https://t.co/EVftWuvtLe — Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) August 16, 2019

This was not the first trip of its kind. Last year,@repmarkpocan, @rephankjohnson and others visited with an almost identical itinerary.



Other Members of Congress have done similar trips.https://t.co/ia2OFlqbg5 — Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) August 16, 2019

But my colleagues and I are not the only ones who are being denied the right to see for themselves the reality on the ground in the West Bank. @OmarSShakir is currently facing deportation for his work with Human Rights Watch. https://t.co/LewHoFiKIo — Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) August 16, 2019

In 2018, the Netanyahu government refused entry to Katherine Frank and my friend @VinceWarren who had arrived on a mostly-POC human rights mission. https://t.co/P8Exe1mRmN — Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) August 16, 2019

And of course, this lack of respect for freedom of movement and freedom of expression is part of the day-to-day lives of Palestinians living in the occupied territories.https://t.co/ZdIgGQUTZg — Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) August 16, 2019

Though we were unable to witness this firsthand, there are other ways for people to learn about the occupation.



Follow @alhaq_org, @btselem, @amnesty and other groups speaking out about human rights violations. — Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) August 16, 2019

Follow @PeterBeinart, who has an excellent piece laying out the realities of the occupation and making the case for more reporting and visits by Members of Congress. https://t.co/W75ycDHK3w — Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) August 16, 2019

Follow @IfnotnowOrg, who gave a virtual tour of the occupied territories here. https://t.co/5pYFOgKYB0 — Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) August 16, 2019

As many of my colleagues have stated in the last 24 hours, we give Israel more than $3 billion in aid every year. This is predicated on their being an important ally in the region, and the 'only democracy' in the Middle East. — Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) August 16, 2019

Denying visits to duly elected Members of Congress is not consistent with being either an ally or a democracy. We should be leveraging that aid to stop the settlements and ensure full rights for Palestinians. — Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) August 16, 2019