Rep. Omar Placed on House Foreign Affairs Committee

[additional-authors]

Aaron Bandler

January 17, 2019

Screenshot from Twitter.

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement who once accused Israel of hypnotizing the world, has been placed on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced Omar’s placement on the committee on Wednesday evening:

Ilhan Omar, a Somali refugee who became one of the first Muslim women elected to Congress, gets a seat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. pic.twitter.com/iIDxBxxnHM

— David Weigel (@daveweigel) January 17, 2019

The House GOP leadership criticized Pelosi for the move.

“Nancy Pelosi said in 2017 that Congress ‘must’ oppose the BDS movement against Israel. Chuck Schumer went even further, calling BDS ‘anti-Semitism’ and ‘profoundly biased,’” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said in a statement. “I would love to know what changed, because Democrats just promoted a pro-BDS Democrat to a key committee that deals with the State of Israel.”

House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) called Omar’s placement on the committee “disgraceful” in a statement.

“Rather than standing up against the disturbing rise of anti-Semitic rhetoric on the left, House Democrats have now just endorsed that ideology,” Scalise said. “House Democrats need to address why they are endorsing these views by rewarding Rep. Omar with an important committee seat.”

https://twitter.com/JoePerticone/status/1085962521779949568

Omar continued to double down on her 2012 tweet accusing Israel of hypnotizing the world, as she told CNN on Thursday morning, “I don’t know how my comments would be offensive to Jewish Americans. My comments precisely are addressing what was happening during the Gaza war and I am clearly speaking about the way that the Israeli regime was conducting itself in that war.”