- “We should not have to tolerate anti-Semitism or intolerance towards all Jewish students, whether pro-genocides or antigenocides,” he said.
- “It is a travesty to claim that Jewish people are somehow to blame for being harassed and threatened,” said ADL Executive Director Jonathan Greenblatt.
Rep. Ilhan Omar has been accused of “blood libel” by the Anti-Defamation League for saying that some Jewish students are “for genocide.”
While visiting campuses last week to show solidarity with students protesting for Gaza after her daughter’s arrest, Omar spoke out against bigotry against Jewish students in a seemingly tongue-in-cheek comment.
“I think it’s really unfortunate that people don’t care about the fact that all Jewish children should be safe, and that we shouldn’t have to tolerate anti-Semitism or intolerance toward all Jewish students, whether pro-genocidal or anti- ‘genocide,’ he said.
“It is patently false and a blood libel to suggest that ANY Jewish student is ‘pro-genocide,'” Jonathan Greenblatt, executive director of the Anti-Defamation League.
Rep. Ilhan Omar has been accused of “blood libel” by the Anti-Defamation League for saying that some Jewish students are “for genocide.”
A protester holds a Palestinian flag as students gather on the Columbia University campus in a protest camp in support of the Palestinians, despite a 2 p.m. deadline issued by university officials to disband or confront a suspension.
‘It is a farce to impute that the Jewish people are somehow to blame for being harassed and threatened with posters and slogans that literally call for their own extermination. It is abhorrent that a sitting member of Congress would smear an entire group of young people in such a cold and calculated manner. This is how they kill people.
Omar then referred to a report by The Intercept about the Department of Education investigating protests at the University of Massachusetts Amherst over anti-Palestinian bias.
In a civil rights complaint, 18 students said they had been victims of “extreme anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab harassment and discrimination.” One allegation claimed that a student had shouted “kill all the Arabs” at pro-Gaza protesters. A university official had reportedly said of the protesters: “They are all Hamas.” All grotesquely evil.
‘This is the pro-genocide I was talking about, can you condemn it as I have condemned anti-Semitism and intolerance of all kinds?’ Omar challenged Greenblatt.
Omar is one of 37 House Democrats who voted against aid to Israel earlier this month, when the Palestinian death toll in Gaza since October 7 surpassed 34,000.
Omar’s comments come as Republicans have repeatedly demanded the resignation of Columbia President Minouche Shafik for failing to quell the protests. President Mike Johnson suggested that President Joe Biden bring in the National Guard.
Last week, House Republican Leader Tom Emmer accused Omar of being a “pro-terrorist.”
Columbia sophomore David Lederer waves a large Israeli flag in front of the student protest camp on the Columbia University campus, Monday, April 29, 2024.
Pro-Palestinian students protest at an encampment on the University of Michigan campus in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on April 28, 2024.
Protests against Israel’s war against Hamas began at Columbia University earlier this month before spreading to campuses across the country.
Columbia’s 2 p.m. deadline for student protesters to vacate an encampment or face disciplinary action came and went on Monday, but the encampments remain. Columbia professors linked arms and formed a protective wall around the Gaza Solidarity Camp.
Rep. Anthony D’Esposito suggested that pro-Palestinian protesters were “proud to have received the backing of Hamas.”
Florida Democratic Rep. Jared Moskowitz compared anti-Semitism within the Columbia protests to the 2017 Charlottesville white nationalist rally last week.
‘We got angry years ago when we saw Charlottesville and ‘Jews will not replace us’ and Donald Trump saying ‘Good people on both sides’ or ‘Mexicans are rapists,’ right? But somehow we don’t feel the same ‘go back to Poland’ anger anymore, Moskowitz said on CNN.
“It’s the same message, which is: ‘Jews are not welcome,'” he continued.
