Palestinian-American Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib says people can't be progressive and pro-Israel

US Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib has said a person cannot be progressive while supporting Israel’s "apartheid" government.

The US representative for Michigan’s 13th congressional district - who has confronted the US president over Israel support - made the comment during an online seminar held on Tuesday by non-profit Americans for Justice in Palestine Action (AJP Action).

It comes just over one month after Israel admitted it killed five children in an airstrike on its final day of a devastating bombing assault of Gaza in August after initially blaming Palestinian Islamic Jihad militants for the deaths.

"I want you all to know that among progressives, it has become clear that you cannot claim to hold progressive values, yet back Israel’s apartheid government," Tlaib said, stating "we will continue to push back and not accept… that you are progressive, except for Palestine".

"The need to oppose Israel’s government’s apartheid rule is obvious. The path to freedom for Palestine is long and daunting, we must see through to its end. We owe it to not only Palestinians, [but] oppressed people all over the world.".

AJP Action also backed the congresswoman’s remarks on Thursday.

"Congresswoman @RashidaTlaib is right: support for apartheid is incompatible with progressive values. If you can't even draw the line at the crime against humanity of apartheid, then you have a broken moral compass," the group tweeted.

International human rights groups, including Amnesty International, have applied the term 'apartheid' - first used to refer to South Africa's 20th-century regime of violent racial segregation - to describe Israel's control over the occupied Palestinian territories.

Palestinians living under the occupation are routinely subject to travel restrictions, denied permission to build homes, faced with humiliating checkpoints and spot checks, detained without charge, and other human rights abuses.