Following Linda Sarsour’s rant on Facebook, she has created an online petition – under the auspices of the Muslim Grassroots Movement – in support of Ilhan Omar and against today’s planned resolution against antisemitism.
March 5, 2019
The Honorable Speaker Nancy Pelosi
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Speaker Pelosi,
It has come to our attention that the House Democratic leadership plans to introduce a resolution originally intended to reprimand Congresswoman Omar for critical comments she made about Israel. We urge the Democratic senior leadership to instead pass a resolution that equally condemns antisemitism and Islamophobia, as well as religious bigotry of all kinds, condemns anti-Black racism and xenophobia, and condemns physical threats against any members of Congress especially those who are persons of color or otherwise minorities.
We, the undersigned organizations and individuals, stand with Representatives Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib and their vision of a world without racism and oppression, and we reject the vicious and racially-motivated bad-faith smears against them, including false charges of antisemitism, accusations of links to terrorism, and death threats.
We believe that it is critical for the resolution to condemn all forms of bigotry. In today’s political climate, antisemitism and Islamophobia are frighteningly prevalent, their flames being fanned at the highest levels, including by the current presidential administration. We must work hand-in-hand to combat them together. A congressional resolution cannot afford to glance over the alarming spike of actual antisemitism, Islamophobia, and religious bigotry in the U.S. today, particularly from the far-right that is by far the greatest purveyor of hate crimes, as statistics show. To single out Congresswoman Omar with unfounded accusations of antisemitism in itself perpetuates an Islamophobic stereotype that Muslims are inherently antisemitic. Americans, including Muslims, can and should be, able to criticize Israeli policies or American policies toward Israel without being falsely accused of antisemitism.
Furthermore, no nation-state should be above criticism. No lobby, whether representing foreign or domestic interests, should be above criticism. Criticizing Saudi Arabia or the Saudi lobby is not inherently Islamophobic; similarly, criticizing Israeli policies or the Israeli lobby is not inherently anti-semitic. Representative Ilhan was consistent in her critique of both. Censoring and silencing political commentary, even on sensitive issues deemed unpopular by some, weakens our democracy and is counter to the interests of our country and our core values of free political expression. The Democratic leadership should also not gloss over or erase the many prominent Jewish voices who penned op-eds, ran interviews, or took to social media to echo the above points.
It is crucial for the resolution to also condemn anti-Black racism and xenophobia. As a Black Muslim woman, Representative Omar is uniquely and personally threatened by the exceptional atmosphere of unfair scrutiny of her right to engage in legitimate political debate. With the current rise of white nationalism and xenophobia, bigotry certainly includes but also certainly extends well beyond antisemitism, and the Democratic leadership would be dangerously tone-deaf not to mention the horrific significant rise in violence, hate crimes, and death threats against all communities of color.
We also call on you to condemn any threat of violence against members of Congress who are people of color. While we are opposed to violence, or threats of violence, to any member of Congress whatsoever, we recognize that the most vulnerable people among our elected officials are those who come from communities of color. Representative Omar has been at the receiving end of death threats and accusations of links to terrorism, as publicly displayed in the West Virginia statehouse. These attacks on her are rooted in both racism and Islamophobia, and we have no doubt that the politically motivated accusations of antisemitism are actually fueling these threats.
Since she has taken office, Representative Omar has consistently been one of the most progressive voices in Congress. We are grateful to her for her consistent and principled stance in support of economic justice, racial justice, immigration justice, environmental justice, justice for the oppressed including Palestinians, and an end to war. The Democratic leadership should celebrate and support her instead of abandoning and condemning her.
We urge you to pass a resolution that condemns all bigotry and racism. We call on you to pursue this opportunity to demonstrate moral leadership and unity, particularly as the 2020 elections loom large.
Besides Sarsour, the signatories seem to all be haters of Israel, including many CAIR activitists, as well as “Jewish” Voices for “Peace.”
As was the case in Sarsour’s post, note the main objections:
- The resolution reprimands Omar
- Omar’s comments were not antisemitic but rather just legitimate criticism of Israel
- The resolution only mentions antisemitism and not other forms of bigotry
Now here’s the text of the resolution:
RESOLUTION
Rejecting anti-Semitism as hateful expressions of intolerance that are contradictory to the values that define the people of the United States.
Whereas anti-Semitism is the bigotry faced by Jewish people simply because they are Jews;
Whereas anti-Semitism entails prejudicial attitudes or discriminatory acts toward people who are Jewish on the basis of their identity;
Whereas in 2010 the Department of State adopted the ”working definition” of anti-Semitism promulgated by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance;
Whereas the definition includes ”a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews”, including blaming Jews when things go wrong, calling for, aiding, or justifying the killing or harming of Jews in the name of a radical ideology or extremist view of religion, or making mendacious, dehumanizing, demonizing, or stereotypical allegations about Jews;
Whereas Jewish people are subject to numerous other dangerous anti-Semitic myths as well, including that Jews control the banks, media, and the United States Government or seek world domination and that Jews are obsessed with money;
Whereas the definition further includes ”accusing Jewish citi-zens of being more loyal to Israel, or to the alleged priorities of Jews worldwide, than to the interests of their own nations”;
Whereas the myth of dual loyalty, including allegations that Jews should be suspected of being disloyal neighbors or citizens, has been used to marginalize and persecute the Jewish people for centuries for being a stateless minority;
Whereas accusing Jews of dual loyalty because they support Israel, whether out of a religious connection, a commitment to Jewish self-determination after millennia of persecution, or an appreciation for shared values and interests, suggests that Jews cannot be patriotic Americans and trusted neighbors, when Jews have served our Nation since its founding, whether in public life or military service;
Whereas accusations of dual loyalty generally have an insidious, bigoted history, including—
1. the discriminatory internment of Americans of Japanese descent during World War II on the basis of race;
2. the Dreyfuss affair; when Alfred Dreyfuss, a Jewish French artillery captain was falsely convicted of passing secrets to Germany based on his Jewish background;
3. when the loyalty of President John F. Kennedy was questioned because of his Catholic faith; and
4. the post-9/11 conditions faced by Muslim-Americans in the United States, including unfounded, vicious attacks on and threats to Muslim-American Members of Congress; and
Whereas scapegoating and targeting of Jews in the United States has persisted for many years, including the 1915 lynching of Leo Frank, a Jewish man falsely accused of rape and murder, Henry Ford writing that there was a ”Jewish plan to control the world, not by territorial ac-quisition, not by military aggression, not by governmental subjugation, but by control of the machinery of commerce and exchange”, the America First Committee, and the rise of neo-Nazism;
Whereas in 2017 the Federal Bureau of Investigation reported a 37 percent increase in hate crimes against Jews or Jewish institutions and found that attacks against Jews or Jewish institutions made up 58.1 percent of all religious-based hate crimes;
Whereas on October 27, 2018, the perpetrator of the deadliest attack on Jewish people in the United States at the Tree of Life Synagogue building in Pittsburgh that killed 11 worshippers, reportedly stated that he ”wanted all Jews to die”;
Whereas Jews are the targets of anti-Semitic violence at even higher rates in many other countries than they are in the United States;
Whereas all Americans, including Jews, Muslims, and Chris-tians and people of all faiths and no faith, have a stake in fighting anti-Semitism, as all Americans have a stake in fighting all bigotry and hatred against religions, races, or places of origin;
Whereas there is an urgent need to ensure the safety and security of Jewish communities, including synagogues, schools, cemeteries, and other institutions; and
Whereas on February 14, 2019, the House of Representatives adopted House Joint Resolution 37 stating that anti-Semitism is a challenge to the basic principles of tolerance, pluralism, and democracy, and the shared values that bind Americans together: Now, therefore, be it
1 Resolved, That the House of Representatives—
2 (1) acknowledges the dangerous consequences
3 of perpetuating anti-Semitic stereotypes; and
4 (2) rejects anti-Semitism as hateful expressions
5 of intolerance that are contradictory to the values
6 that define the people of the United States.
There should be nothing objectionable in this text to any person truly committed to stamping out antisemitism. It also addresses some of the “criticisms” of the petition; Ilhan Omar is not even mentioned, and “the post-9/11 conditions faced by Muslim-Americans in the United States, including unfounded, vicious attacks on and threats to Muslim-American Members of Congress” gets a special mention.
Despite this fact, Sarsour and gang will not withdraw their petition or desist from railing against the resolution. That is because of what I mentioned in yesterday’s post – it characterizes as antisemitic remarks like those Omar, Sarsour and gang constantly make, including:
- that Jews control the banks, media, and the United States Government or seek world domination and that Jews are obsessed with money
- that Jews are more loyal to Israel than their home countries
I assume they’d also hate the acknowledgment that we support Israel “whether out of a religious connection, or a commitment to Jewish self-determination after millennia of persecution.”
Sarsour in particular has claimed she is an ally of the Jewish community and deplores antisemitism. If this was truly the case, she would get behind the resolution, rather than countering it with a petition that complains about things that are mostly not true.
Let’s face it. If you object to the House resolution condemning antisemitism, you might just be an antisemite yourself.
