U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) leaves the U.S. Senate chamber and walks back to the House of Representatives side of the Capitol with colleagues after watching the failure of both competing Republican and Democratic proposals to end the partial government shutdown in back to back votes on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., January 24, 2019. REUTERS/Leah Millis The House of Representatives intends to draft a resolution to address Rep. Ilhan Omar’s recent remarks about Israel, Politico reports.
In an email to the Journal, a senior Democratic aide said the resolution would be brought to the House floor on Wednesday.
The pending resolution comes after Anti-Defamation League (ADL) CEO Jonathan Greenblatt sent a letter on March 4 to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to introduce a resolution after Omar said on Feb. 27 that she wanted to discuss “the political influence in this country that says it is okay for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country.”
On Mar. 2, Omar doubled down on the statement, tweeting, “I should not be expected to have allegiance/pledge support to a foreign country in order to serve my country in Congress or serve on committee.”
Greenblatt wrote in his letter, “Accusing Jews of having allegiance to a foreign government has long been a vile anti-Semitic slur that has been used to harass, marginalize, and persecute the Jewish people for centuries. Sometimes referred to as the ‘dual loyalty’ charge, it alleges that Jews should be suspected of being disloyal neighbors or citizens because their true allegiance is to their co-religionists around the world or to a secret and immoral Jewish agenda.”
Greenblatt added that the “disturbing increase in anti-Semitism in our country and around the world” makes it important for Congress to vote on a resolution that rejects “her latest slur and make clear that no matter what may divide the 435 members of the House of Representatives, they are united in condemning anti-Semitism.”
The senior Democratic aide told the Journal that House Democratic staffers started working on the resolution over the weekend, before Greenblatt sent his letter.
Omar’s office did not respond to the Journal’s request for comment.
UPDATE:
NEW TEXT of resolution condemning anti-semitism in response to @IlhanMN’s recent comments pic.twitter.com/OQ7P3lFADW
— Eliza Collins (@elizacollins1) March 4, 2019
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