Ilhan Omar slams fellow Democrats after facing backlash for tweet on Israel and US

US congresswoman Ilhan Omar recently slammed her Democratic Party colleagues after she faced a backlash over her remarks that seemed to place the US and Israel in the same category as the Palestinian resistance group Hamas and the Afghan armed group Taliban. In her tweet, Omar had said that there has been “unthinkable atrocities committed by the US, Hamas, Israel, Afghanistan and the Taliban”. Along with a video of her questioning US Secretary of State Antony Blinken regarding the US opposition to ICC inquiries into alleged war crimes in Israel and Afghanistan, the Muslim American congresswoman had also said that the nation must have the “same level of accountability and justice for all victims of crimes against humanity”. 

Following her tweets, several Jewish lawmakers called on Omar to clarify her words and argued that equating the US and Israel to Hamas and Taliban is “as offensive as it is misguided”. The US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also said that drawing “false equivalencies” between democracies like the US and Israel and groups that engage in terrorism like Hamas and Taliban “foments prejudice and undermines progress toward a future of peace and security for all”. 

Omar slams comments as 'shameful'

However, Omar hit back and slammed the Jewish lawmakers’ comments as “shameful” and “Islamophobic tropes”. Her spokesperson Jeremy Slevin in a statement also said that the group of lawmakers were “ginning up the same Islamophobic hate against her” as far-right foes who initially attacked Omar over her tweet. Slevin also added that Omar reached out to the group ahead of their statement’s release to offer clarification, but her calls were not returned. 

As she faced a backlash, Omar even clarified her stance and said that she asked Blinken about ongoing International Criminal Court (ICC) investigations. She even added that the conversation was about accountability for specific incidents regarding those ICC cases and not a moral comparison between Hamas and the Taliban and the US and Israel. Further, the congresswoman said that she was in no way equating terrorist organisation with democratic countries with a well-established judicial system. 

(IMAGE: AP)