WASHINGTON, D.C. – According to reports, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) is once again being soundly criticized for making remarks that many are saying are blatantly anti-Semitic by doubling down on recent comments that she made comparing Israel to terrorist organizations.
While being interviewed on CNNโs โThe Leadโ Tuesday by host Jake Tapper, Omar revisited a tweet she sent out earlier in June where she compared Israel and the United States with Hamas and the Taliban, two well-known Middle Eastern terrorist groups. When asked about the infamous tweet โ which was widely condemned,ย even by members of her own partyย โ Omar stated that she did not regret it.
In addition, when Tapper inquired of Omar if she understood that her fellow Democrats โ and in particular, Jews โ had found her comments about Israel to be anti-Semitic, she disparagingly claimed that her Jewish colleagues have not been โpartners in justice.โ
โIโve welcomed, you know, anytime my colleagues have asked to have a conversation, to learn from them, for them to learn from me,โย Omar said. โI think itโs really important for these members to realize that they havenโt been partners in justice. They havenโt been, you know, equally engaging in seeking justice around the world.โ
Omar continued, then seeming to claim that her fellow members of Congress that were Jewish didnโt know what it was like to be discriminated against.
โIt is important for me, as someone who knows what it feels like to experience injustice in ways that many of my colleagues donโt, to be a voice in finding accountability, asking for mechanisms for justice for those who are maligned, oppressed, and who have had injustice done to them,โ she said.
Omar has a history of posting anti-Semitic content on social media; in February 2019, she issued a now-deleted tweet saying that theย alliance between the US and Israel is โall about the Benjaminsโย andย in 2012 she claimed that Israelย โhas hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel.โ
Omarโs CNN interview drew swift condemnation from users on social media, with Avi Mayer of the American Jewish Committeeย tweeting, โOmar’s comments draw on classic antisemitic themes about Jewish clannishness, the notion that Jews only look out for themselves. They’re also plainly false. Jewish lawmakers have been on the front lines, fighting for human rights in America and globally.โ
Journalist and author Annika H Rothstein also took Omar to task,ย tweeting, “So Jews should learn from [Ilhan Omar] what itโs like to experience injustice? No one can ever say Ilhan Omar didnโt show the world exactly who and what she is.”
And vice president of Parents Defending Education and cofounder of the Muslim Reform Movement, Asra Nomani, was also highly critical of Omarโs statements,ย tweeting, “This is what a modern day Muslim Supremacist looks like. Ilhan Omar speaks to [Jake Tapper] + rebukes Jewish Democratic colleagues for failing to be ‘partners in injustice.’ Her wound is bigger than their woundโa wound collector in the Oppression Olympics.”
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