by Craig Bannister in the Cybercast News Service
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) was removed from the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Thursday, due to past comments that have been condemned by Democrats and Republicans alike.
Omar was removed after a contentious debate between Democrats and Republicans, Fox News reports:
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“The House voted Thursday to kick Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar off the House Foreign Affairs Committee, a decision that Republicans vowed to take because of Omar’s history of antisemitic and anti-American remarks.
“The resolution was approved in a 218-211 vote after a heated debate in which Democrats accused Republicans of racism and hypocrisy and claimed that the GOP is only policing Democrats for questionable behavior. Omar and several other Democrats openly accused Republicans of racism.”
“Representative Omar’s comments have brought dis-honor to the House of Representatives,” the resolution says.
Remarks by Rep. Omar deemed anti-Semitic or anti-American in the resolution include:
- “Omar suggested that Jewish people and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) were buying political support, saying, ‘It’s all about the Benjamins, baby,’ leading to condemnation from Republicans and Democrats alike for her use of an anti-Semitic trope.”
- “Omar trivialized the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, that killed 2,977 people by describing it as ‘some people did something.’”
- “Omar referred to Israel as ‘an apartheid state,’ and went on to say that those who refused such a characterization needed to, ‘get on the right side of history.’”
- Omar is quoted saying, “We have seen unthinkable atrocities committed by the U.S., Hamas, Israel, Afghanistan, and the Taliban,” which the resolution says establishes “a false equivalency between Israel—which has the right and responsibility to protect itself and its citizens from all forms of terrorism—and Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization actively engaged in committing war crimes, including using civilians as human shields, which is banned under customary international humanitarian law.”
The Coalition for Jewish Values, which represents more than two thousand rabbis, is reportedly among those who had urged congressional leaders to remove Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) from the House Foreign Affairs Committee because of her extensive history of anti-Semitism.
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