Tlaib's tweet calling Israel 'apartheid state' gets torn apart by instant fact check

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Kellyanne Conway: I'm glad Debbie Wasserman Schultz shot back at Tlaib

Kellyanne Conway, former senior adviser to President Donald Trump, says she sides with Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz in condemning Rep. Rashida Tlaib's progressive litmus test on support for Israel.

Twitter's new fact checking system hit back at Rep. Rashida Tlaib after the Michigan Democrat called Israel an "apartheid state."

"Speaker McCarthy wants to rewrite history but the apartheid state of Israel was born out of violence and the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians," Tlaib said Monday on Twitter. "75 years later, the Nakba continues to this day."

Tlaib's tweet, which was in response to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's post noting the "special relationship" between Israel and the U.S., was the subject of an instant fact check by Twitter, with notes below the post pointing out several errors.

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Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., listens as acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan testifies before the House Oversight and Reform Committee. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

The fact check first points out that Israel was created by United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181, linking to the document at the U.N.'s official website. 

The fact check then points out that the "ethnic cleansing" Tlaib claimed happened "affected both Jewish and Arab communities caught up in the war initiated by 5 Arab states who opposed the existence of Israel." To bolster the second point, the Twitter fact check linked to the State Department's official history of the Arab-Israeli War of 1948.

The last note pointed out that Israel has over 20% Arab citizens who have "full and equal rights," linking to a Democracy Institute study that found the country's Arab residents had declining rates of infant mortality and rising life expectancies. 

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Twitter's "Community Notes" system has been expanded by new platform owner Elon Musk, who announced last month that there would be "no exceptions" to fact checks for those who post "materially false statements on this platform." Musk pointed out that anyone could be fact checked under the system, including heads of states and even the billionaire owner himself.

Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., right, listens as Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., speaks during a news conference about Islamophobia on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

The fact check of Tlaib, a high-profile Democratic member of the progressive "Squad," comes after conservatives have long argued social media companies unfairly target conservative views for arbitrary fact checks and bans, something that is evidently changing at Twitter under the leadership of Musk.

Tlaib's tweet also received scorn from other users of the platform, including former U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, who argued the Michigan Democrat was "a bit off" on the facts.

Elon Musk talks during a tour of the plant of the future foundry of the Tesla Gigafactory Grünheide near Berlin on Aug. 13, 2021. (Patrick Pleul - Pool/Getty Images)

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"You’re a bit off on this congresswoman," Friedman said in a response on Twitter. "Actually, the State of Israel was born notwithstanding the unsuccessful Palestinian attempts at ethnic cleansing to remove the Jews, through acts of terror and collaboration with Hitler (whose dear friend was Grand Mufti of Jerusalem)."

The tweet was also condemned by Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations Gilad Erdan, who told Fox News Digital the comments were an example of the Democrat's "antisemitic lies."

"Tlaib’s ignorance and hatred toward the Jewish people and the State of Israel know no bounds," Erdan said. "The facts are clear: the Arabs rejected the UN’s resolution to establish a Jewish state and started a war to annihilate the Jews in Israel. 

Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations Gilad Erdan attends a UN security council meeting on Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the UN headquarters in New York on April 25, 2023.  (ED JONES/AFP via Getty Images)

Since then, for the past 75 years, the Palestinians are bringing upon themselves a Nakba by continuing to incite hate and terrorism and rejecting every peace plan," Erdan continued. "Tlaib is rewriting history and her antisemitic lies ignore the fact that the only ethnic cleansing took place against the 850,000 Jews who were expelled from Arab countries following Israel’s establishment."

Tlaib's office did not immediately respond to a Fox News request for comment.