Alwaght- The US House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy threatened to remove Democrat Ilhan Omar over her condemnation of Israeli war crimes if he becomes speaker of the House.
He said that Omar wouldn’t be allowed to serve on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, accusing her of “anti-Semitic” remarks.
According to Fox News, McCarthy said “We watch anti-Semitism grow, not just on our campuses, but we watched it grow in the halls of Congress.”
On his Twitter account, he said “Last year, I promised that when I became Speaker, I would remove Rep. Ilhan Omar from the House Foreign Affairs Committee based on her repeated anti-Semitic and anti-American remarks. I’m keeping that promise.”
Along with US Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, the two have triggered a widespread debate in the US about Israel’s crimes against the Palestinians and American aid to the regime.
Tlaib and Omar, the first two Muslim women elected to Congress, are outspoken critics of Israel’s policies toward the Palestinians and vocal supporters of the Boycott, Divest and Sanction (BDS) movement. The two called “Israel” an “apartheid state” guilty of war crimes.
The 37-year-old US citizen and lawmaker is originally from Somalia and represents Minneapolis, Minnesota, a district with a large Somali population.
Omar has accused pro-Israel lawmakers of showing “allegiance to a foreign country,” and has criticized the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) for its role in shaping US policy.
In May 2021, Omar condemned US President Joe Biden for siding with Israel’s oppressive occupation of Palestine and carrying out recent atrocities against Palestinians.
Earlier in April 2019, Omar made former US President Donald Trump furious for highlighting Israeli apartheid crimes against Palestinians.
“She’s been very disrespectful to this country. She’s been very disrespectful, frankly, to Israel. She is somebody that doesn’t really understand life, real life. What it’s all about,” Trump said in defense of the Israeli regime back then.
The congresswoman remains among a minority of US lawmakers who strongly oppose an apartheid regime in Occupied Palestine, is outspoken against US selling of arms abroad and fiercely oppose gun laws in the country that allow the purchase of military combat weapons by any individual over the age of 18 with a little background check.
