Ilhan Omar is a freshman Democratic Representative in the US Congress who has just taken her oath of office in January of 2019. In a span of less than two months, she has made quite a mark for herself and obliged the Democratic Party and the US to engage in debate and much-needed introspection.
In February, she first tweeted an obvious insinuation that American politicians were keen on passing pro-Israeli resolutions due to bribes from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).
Not surprisingly, she immediately faced a deluge of accusations from notably conservative Republicans of being anti-Semitic. The can of worms was opened, the worms ecstatic that they were able to pounce on Omar so soon after she took office. They would not even have to get nitpicky about how to taint her reputation. Being of African origin, a female, a former refugee and Muslim, she had hit a nerve among a lot of people in the government.
Omar unequivocally apologised for her tweet and just as the controversy was cooling down, she once again brought up the topic of Israel at a town hall meeting, where she suggested that Israel demands “allegiance” from American lawmakers. Once again, a round of the “anti-Semitic” labelling ensued.
Of course, anyone not on the bandwagon to convict Omar merely on the basis of her not fitting into the textbook definition of what many in today’s conservative America considers “appropriate” or “acceptable” could see clearly that what she had said had absolutely nothing to do with anti-Semitism, nor bigotry, nor racism. She made statements about the political strategies of a foreign government. This may be stating the obvious but an American citizen and an American lawmaker must pledge allegiance to the United States and its constitution, not Israel or any other nation. Furthermore, there was no reference whatsoever to any religion in her remark.
What Omar was evidently referring to is the colossal influence lobby groups have on American politics and politicians. What is particularly interesting and revealing is that criticism of any other lobby group, be it for guns, healthcare, prescription medication, civil rights or any of the others in their thousands, is fine. The moment a discussion is brought up regarding Israel (politics, not even religion), there is an onslaught of insults from conservatives and even some moderates.
Interestingly enough, a substantial number of articles and social media statements are being written by Jewish people, who do not find Omar’s comments the least bit bigoted or anti-Semitic. Even Bernie Sanders, who lost family members in the Holocaust, stated that Omar’s comments are a “fair criticism” of the Israeli government, not anti-Semitism.
What is obvious is that Omar has initiated a discussion which was long overdue in the US. Why is it a taboo subject to discuss the Israeli treatment of Palestinians? Why can American taxpayers not question their lawmakers who are answerable to the American people, on which advocacy groups they take ‘campaign finances’ from and why?
Thankfully a number of positive aspects resulted from this debate. First, on March 7, there was a unanimous resolution passed by the House of Representative Democrats to broadly condemn hate of “traditionally persecuted peoples, including African Americans, and other people of colour, Jews Muslims Hindus, Sikhs, Latinos, Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders”.
Second, there has been a realisation in American society about how little it actually cares or knows about Palestinians. Third, the privileged relationship between American lawmakers and the state of Israel is not one which by law must remain strictly confidential and unquestionable.
Lastly, the House Democrats’ resolution was clear in its stance: if we, as a nation and as a government so vehemently condemn anti-Semitism, we must do the same for Islamophobia.
Just this week, 14 British Conservative Party members have been suspended for Islamophobic comments on social media. In Pakistan, a state minister has been fired for insulting Hindus. The US needs to absolutely follow suit and make this the new normal in governance and society.
The writer is a teacher, writer, political columnist and member of the US
Democratic Party.
Email: sabriacballand@gmail.com
Twitter: @sabriaballand
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