CODEPINK co-founder Medea Benjamin put it very accurately in her short TikTok video on Aug. 4, describing House Speaker Mike Johnson’s provocative trip to Israel as “genocide tourism.” On Aug. 3, he arrived at the illegal West Bank settlement of Ariel, where he was effusively welcomed by the Yesha Council, an umbrella of illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank, and by his trip’s sponsor, the U.S.-Israel Education Association. The latter, Benjamin warned, is nothing but “a front for AIPAC,” the American Israeli Political Action Committee. Johnson’s almost week-long trip was “unannounced” and “private,” although a gaggle of Republican legislators accompanied him and they all met with Defense Minister Israel Katz and Foreign Minister Gideon Saar. Only after that meeting was Johnson’s visit made public. He will remain in Israel until Aug. 9.
Benjamin pointed out that Johnson isn’t in his Louisiana district, “which is so poor that 34% of the population relies on Medicaid.” No, he’s in Israel with a group of Republicans all “to provide cover for Netanyahu’s regime.” Johnson’s visit to the illegal Ariel settlement “is simply cover for Netanyahu’s plan to annex the entire West Bank,” she charged. Johnson referred to the West Bank as Judea and Samaria, which he claimed “rightfully belongs to Israel,” but “said nothing about the violent settlers who terrorize Palestinians every day, burning their homes, shooting their farmers, and even killing U.S. citizens.” Among the Republicans accompanying him is Zionist Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY), who chairs the Friends of Judea and Samaria Caucus in the House (“Judea and Samaria” is what Israel calls the West Bank).
