Rep. Tlaib's Grandmother in West Bank Still Hopes for a Visit

"I hope, inshallah, that she will come back. Iโ€™m waiting for her," Muftia Tlaib told NBC News

Rep. Rashida Tlaib's grandmother says she does not understand what all the hubbub is about โ€” why can't her granddaughter, an important person in America, stop by for a visit?

"It's been a long time since I've seen her โ€” five to six years. But sometimes I see her on TV and talk with her on the phone," said Muftia Tlaib as she sat in the family's sun-washed garden in territory Israel has occupied since 1967. "Why didnโ€™t they allow her to come here?"

On Friday, Rashida Tlaib announced she was canceling a visit to this small village, just hours after Israel changing its tune by granting the Michigan Democrat permission to go. 

"I canโ€™t do anything. Iโ€™m really very sad," her grandmother, who is in her 80s, told NBC News on Saturday. "I hope, inshallah, that she will come back. Iโ€™m waiting for her."

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