Now, less than a week after Omar’s election to Congress representing Minnesota’s Fifth District, Omar is explicitly stating her position as a BDS supporter in what many argue is a contradiction of the stance she took at Beth El Synagogue.
In a statement to the website Muslim Girl, — initially reported by The Forward — and attributed to the Congresswoman-elect’s campaign staff, “Ilhan believes in and supports the BDS movement, and has fought to make sure people’s right to support it isn’t criminalized. She does however, have reservations on the effectiveness of the movement in accomplishing a lasting solution.”
She confirmed that position in a text-message conversation with TC Jewfolk Monday night.
At the Aug. 6 candidate forum at Beth El Synagogue which was co-sponsored by Jewish Community Action, Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas, the National Council of Jewish Women Minnesota, and Jewfolk, Inc. (the parent company of TC Jewfolk), Omar unequivocally supported a two-state solution and argued that the BDS Movement was “counteractive” in achieving that outcome.
“I support a two-state solution. It is going to be important for us to recognize Israel’s place in the Middle East and the Jewish people’s rightful place within that region,” she said. “It’s also important to make sure we’re going through a process that we are guaranteeing that to the Palestinians. I believe right now with the BDS movement, it’s not helpful in getting that two-state solution. I look forward to making sure that we are utilizing and being part of a conversation that gets us closer so that we can have peace and make sure there is justice within that.”
Mary Lahammer, the moderator of the forum, asked Omar to specify “exactly where you stand on that.”
“I think the particular purpose for [BDS] is to make sure that there is pressure, and I think that pressure really is counteractive. Because in order for us to have a process of getting to a two-state solution, people have to be willing to come to the table and have a conversation about how that is going to be possible and I think that stops the dialogue,” Omar said. “I want to make sure that we are furthering policies and advocating for things that get people closer to having that conversation.”
Prior to her run for Congress, she posted several Tweets critical of Israel, including accusing it of “hypnotizing the world,” which to many observers echoed centuries-old anti-Semitic canards about secretive Jewish manipulation and control.
Israel has hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel. #Gaza #Palestine #Israel
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) November 16, 2012
The Tweet resurfaced during the start of the campaign in the early summer, when Omar denounced claims of anti-Semitism as “bigotry,” but didn’t – and hasn’t – retracted or deleted the original 2012 Tweet.
Drawing attention to the apartheid Israeli regime is far from hating Jews. You are a hateful sad man, I pray to Allah you get the help you need and find happiness. https://t.co/SvEXjlxlEN
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) May 31, 2018
As a member of State House of Representatives, Omar voted against a bill in the Minnesota Legislature that prohibits Minnesota from contracting with vendors who discriminate against Israelis; the bipartisan bill passed the House 98-28 and the Senate 57-8, before DFL Gov. Mark Dayton signed it into law.
This further demonstrates the embrace of anti-Semitic/anti-Israel/anti-Zionist sentiment that is prevalent among the “progressive” left wing in Minnesota. Must work must be done to educate the people and counteract the propaganda in the media and it’s coverage of the Middle East. The lack of meaningful coverage in any local media exacerbates the problem. It exists in my own family. The roots go deeper than the 1960s and the assumption that one must support “the underdog” whoever it is. That this person could be elected is an embarrassment to the nation. But Minnesotans are well out of touch with reality.
How is it that we continue to ignore the plain evidence of anti-Semitism in certain communities (that have been very transparent concerning a visceral hatred for Israel and its people: “…..we shall wipe them off the face of the earth by driving them into the sea….) and then get wrought when they reveal their true feelings and intent?
Omar needs to represent her constituents, not her personal opinions.
So “Progressive” Congresswoman Omar now supports BDS. Maybe she would like to comment about the official status of Dhimmi within Muslim majority countries in the Middle East. This status, which has been in place for almost 1,300 years, officially regulates non-Muslims to, at best, second class status within the countries they live. How is it that ‘progressives” seem to either accept or ignore this but are quick to attack Israel, the one country in the Middle East where non-Muslims are treated equally, where there is an active LGBTQ community, where women are not regarded as second class citizens? And where there are injustices toward non-Jewish minorities, there are active NGOs, often lead by Israeli Jews to address minority grievances and a robust legal system to protect minority rights and to address inequalities. Where is the B’Tselem of Egypt, of Lebanon, of Saudi Arabia, of Syria or of “Palestine”? Where are the so-called “progressive” voices when the Palestinian Authority makes the selling of land to Jews a capital offense? And please don’t tell me how much better Jews were treated in Muslim countries than Christian countries. We may have been treated better, but we were never treated as true equals with our Muslim neighbors. Isn’t equality one of the fundamental principles of being a “progressive’? And when did Jewish status in under Muslim lands improve? During European colonialism of the Middle East. How unfortunate that it took colonialism from Europe to remove the status of Dhimmi from non-Muslims. So Congresswoman Omar lied, I mean changes her position, like Palestinian-American Rashida Tlaib, another so-called “progressive’, whose endorsement by J-Street had to be withdrawn after she changed her position from supporting a two-state solution to a one-state solution. When people like Congresswoman Omar can wrap themselves in the blanket of “progressiveness” and not be challenged by real “progressives” one must question what being “progressive” really means.
https://iis.ac.uk/academic-article/muslim-jews-and-christians-relations-and-interactions?fbclid=IwAR3YTfAglzHffGTi3qjN_vMl2FfEt2YRd41GskVbtv0WZ_Ssz2DcWohJmoQ
I’m a constituent in MN district 5, Ilhan’s district. She clearly mislead us on her position. If she doesn’t firmly renounce her support of the BDS movement, she’ll be primaried in 2020.