Over 200 Rabbis Demand Pelosi Remove Ilhan Omar for Anti-Israel Remarks
212 American rabbis and 12 rabbis from overseas wrote letter
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More than 200 rabbis have demanded House Speaker Nancy Pelosi removes Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) from the House Foreign Affairs Committee for her anti-Semitic remarks.
The rabbis wrote in a letter:
"We reiterate that the mob attacks on American Jews today are directly attributable to the rhetoric of Rep. Omar and those who stand with her within and beyond Congress."
"To protect Jewish Americans and, moreover, safeguard the integrity of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, we thus insist upon the removal of Rep. Omar from her appointment."
"Rep. Omar's unfounded assertion that Israel committed ‘unthinkable atrocities’ by defending lives against an openly genocidal terror organization is not merely offensive, it is pernicious – for it is grounded in the blood libel and the calumny that Jews poisoned wells during the Black Death," they wrote.
"Without anything resembling a forceful response from the Democratic Party, tolerance of anti-Jewish hatred has proliferated."
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The rabbis noted their previous warnings of putting Omar on the Foreign Affairs Committee in 2019, causing her of "playing identity politics."
House Republicans expected to move forward with resolution stripping Omar of seat on House Foreign Affairs Committee
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"When 12 Jewish Democrats in the House rightfully denounced Rep. Omar’s abhorrent bigotry, the Congressional Progressive Caucus stooped to playing identity politics, cravenly claiming that the motivation for the condemnation was opposition to Rep. Omar as a ‘Black, Muslim woman’ rather than her anti-Semitic animus," they wrote.
212 American rabbis and 12 rabbis from overseas, including Canada and Israel, signed the letter sent by the Coalition of Jewish Values and its president, Rabbi Pesach Lerner.
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They also said the group has also condemned a Republican, Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, for what they called "insensitive statements."
Pelosi said last week she wouldn't take further action against Omar over he tweet which claimed the U.S. and Israel, like Hamas and the Taliban, we're guilty of "unthinkable atrocities."
Omar clarified her tweet, but only after facing backlash.
When Pelosi was asked if action would be taken against Omar, she said:
"I think that she clarified her remarks, and we accept that, and she has a point that she wanted to make, and she has a right to make that point," Pelosi said.
"There's some unease about how it was interpreted."
