The Headlines

ELECTION 2018

Michigan Congresswoman-elect Rashida Tlaib wraps herself in PLO flag

Michigan Democrat Rashida Tlaib, who won a seat in the House of Representatives in the midterm elections held Nov. 6, wrapped herself in a Palestinian flag at her victory party. Tlaib is one of the first two Muslim women ever to be elected to the Congress, along with Ilhan Omar from Minnesota.

Tlaib is known to support BDS, a one-state solution, and other anti-Israel beliefs. Asked during an interview with British Channel 4 News whether she would vote against military aid to Israel when she goes to Congress, Tlaib said “absolutely.”

The Zionist Organization of America immediately condemned Tlaib for wrapping herself in a Palestinian flag last week at her election victory party.

“We condemn Rashida Tlaib’s wrapping herself in the flag of a hostile, anti-American regime which has shamelessly claimed that it is entitled as of ‘right’ to U.S. aid, recently discontinued, and which has engaged in pro-terror, anti-anti-peace acts like honoring terrorists, naming schools and streets after them, paying salaries to jailed terrorists and stipends for the families of deceased terrorists in proportion to the amount of Jewish blood they have shed,” said ZOA National Director Mort Klein.

Klein also posed: “Is Cong.-Elect Rashida Tlaib’s loyalty to America or to a terrorist dictatorship which is an enemy of America!?”

“The ZOA also condemned Rep. Tlaib’s record of antisemitic extremism, which includes support for ‘one-state’; that is, the revocation of Israel’s rightful independence and sovereignty and supplanting it by a single state in which Arabs would predominate,” he added.

 

 

Newly elected House Rep. Ilhan Omar now says she supports BDS

(Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON (JTA) – Ilhan Omar, the newly elected congresswoman from Minnesota, said after being elected that she supported the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement targeting Israel, after saying during her campaign that it was “counteractive” and prevents dialogue.

Omar’s comment came in response to a website called Muslim Girl, which pressed her on her appearance during the campaign at a Minneapolis area synagogue. During that candidates’ forum, she had said that BDS “stops the dialogue” and is “counteractive” to achieving a two-state outcome. Like many other Democrats, she noted her opposition to anti-BDS legislation but framed it as a free-speech issue.

“Ilhan believes in and supports the BDS movement, and has fought to make sure people’s right to support it isn’t criminalized,” her campaign told Muslim Girl after the election. “She does, however, have reservations on the effectiveness of the movement in accomplishing a lasting solution.”

TC Jewfolk, the local Jewish news website which originally reported her ostensible rejection of BDS, pressed her on the issue after the Muslim Girl statement in text messages posted on Twitter.

Omar insisted there was no contradiction. “I believe and support the BDS movement and have fought to make sure people’s right to support it isn’t criminalized,” she said. “I do, however, have reservations on [the] effectiveness of the movement in accomplishing a lasting solution.”

The TC Jewfolk reporter pressed her further, asking Omar why she didn’t simply answer “yes or no” when asked about the issue at the synagogue forum for candidates.

“It was a bigger issue and she didn’t ask for a ‘yes or no’ answer,” Omar replied, referring to the person who posed the question.

Omar is the first Somali and one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress. The other Muslim woman, Rashida Tlaib of the Detroit area, also backs BDS.

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