Rashida Tlaib calls on Israel to release the body of a woman who tried to kill Israeli troops
Michigan | August 30, 2021
Michigan Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib called for Israel to return the body of a woman who was killed while she attempted to kill Israeli soldiers.
In a Twitter thread on Saturday, Tlaib, one of Israel’s harshest critics in Congress, slammed Israel for its policy of holding onto the bodies of assailants who are killed during an attack.
“Meet Mai Afana’s mother, Khuloud, who is fighting to be able to bury her daughter & begin her healing,” wrote Tlaib, a Palestinian American. “Mai was a mother, loving daughter & successful PhD student. She was killed by the Israeli government last June. Israel won’t release her body to her family.”
Attached to the tweet is a photo of Afana’s mother holding up a poster of her daughter.
Afana was killed on June 16. The Israeli military said at the time that she had rammed her car into a West Bank checkpoint near Jerusalem and then, holding a knife, had rushed the soldiers at the checkpoint. An Israeli soldier was lightly injured in the attack.
Israel routinely holds bodies of assailants as a means of bargaining for live Israeli captives and the bodies of Israelis held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip… (Excerpts from Jewish Telegraphic Agency)