Michigan Dem Rashida Tlaib Says She'll 'Absolutely' Vote Against Aid to Israel

Rashida Tlaib, the recent winner of a Democratic primary in a Michigan district Republicans aren't even contesting, said she will "absolutely" vote against continued aid to Israel.

Asked during an interview with Great Britain's Channel 4 News whether she would vote against military aid to Israel when she goes to Congress, she said "absolutely."

Host Krishnan Guru-Murth: As a Palestinian what's your position on Israel and U.S. aid to Israel? Tlaib: "Look, I am a person that grew up in Detroit where every single corner of the district is a reminder of the civil rights movement... I can tell you when I was 12-years-old I sat there with my mother when she was shifted into a line with all the other brown people, and then all the other folks, you know — mostly citizens of Israel — in another section. And the way that she was treated less than, that inequality that is very evident when you're there. When you understand truly that equality, justice, access to all those things is solely based on your faith, they're solely based on your ethnicity, to me you were never going to get peace until we start talking about integration, until we start talking about — instead of walls and checkpoints — how we can connect people, and that divide will decrease. So many of us are so much about, 'Let's choose a side.' Well, I'm for equality for all, for making sure every single person there has every right to thrive..."

Guru-Murth: And so when you get into Congress, will you vote against U.S. military aid for Israel?

Tlaib: "Absolutely, if it has something to do with inequality and not access to people having justice. For me, U.S. aid should be leveraged. It should be leveraged to promote that value. If you're going to be a country that discriminates against someone solely based on their faith, solely based on their skin color, in many ways — because there are Israelis now that are darker skinned and they're not being treated equally, to me, that doesn't fit the values of our country. So I will be using my position as a member of Congress to say no country, not one, should be able to get aid from us the American people... when they still promote that kind of injustice that I saw in Detroit, especially my neighbors who went through the civil rights movement."