U.S. lawmaker calls Israeli move to block her visit an 'insult to democratic values'

U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar said on Thursday that Israel's decision to block her visit to the country was an "insult to democratic values" and was unsurprising given Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's resistance to peace efforts.

"The irony of the 'only democracy' in the Middle East making such a decision is that it is both an insult to democratic values and a chilling response to a visit by government officials from an allied nation," Omar, who sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a statement after Israel barred her visit with fellow Democratic congresswoman Rashida Tlaib.