Rep. Ilhan Omar sparked outrage Monday with a public appeal for the US to shift from giving Israel “unconditional arms sales and military aid” to diplomacy.
Omar (D-Minn.) — a member of the so-called “Squad” — also voiced the plight of the Palestinian people and suggested that Israel’s retaliation against the terrorist group Hamas may constitute a “war crime.”
“The Israeli Defense Minister has called the Palestinians ‘human animals’ and promised to cut off all electricity, all food, and all fuel to civilians in Gaza,” wrote Omar in a long threat on X, previously Twitter.
“This is collective punishment, a war crime, and the US should oppose any violation of international law if we truly support a rules-based international order,” he continued.
The 41-year-old congresswoman, who has long been a vocal critic of Israel’s settlement policies and defender of Palestine, went on to argue, “the solution to this horror, as always, is a negotiated peace.”
This is collective punishment, a war crime, and the US should oppose any violation of international law if we truly support a rules-based international order.
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) October 9, 2023
“Instead of continuing unconditional arms sales and military aid to Israel, I urge the United States to finally use its diplomatic power to push for peace,” he stressed.
His remarks shocked critics who ripped into his calls for peace in the wake of deadly attacks on Israel that have killed more than 1,000.
“Israel is just being brutally attacked by terrorists, funded by Iran, and you want to cut funding and military aid and equipment,” Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) responded.
“You are sane and unfit to serve in the Dewan Rakyat. That is why you were removed from the Foreign Affairs committee.”
Ilhan Omar has a long history of stirring controversy with his statements on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. AFP via Getty Images
Israel is just brutally attacked by terrorists, funded by Iran, and you want to cut off funding and military aid and equipment. You are insane and unfit to serve in the House of Representatives. This is why you were removed from the Foreign Affairs committee. https://t.co/nRIulpUgQi
— Mike Lawler (@lawler4ny) October 9, 2023
Omar was fired from the House Foreign Affairs Committee earlier this year following a GOP takeover of the lower house.
Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) cited his past comments about Israel as justification.
“Ilhan Omar and the squad used the day after Israel faced the largest terrorist attack in its history and the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust to call for an end to military aid to those under attack,” said an account named AG.
Ilhan Omar and the squad used the days after Israel faced the largest terrorist attack in its history and the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust to call for an end to military aid to those under attack. https://t.co/trK6YKzy2u
— AG (@AGHamilton29) October 9, 2023
“Ilhan calls on the US to leave Israel as Hamas parades rape survivors through the streets of Gaza. May God bless your soul,” said Intermediate writer Isaac Schorr.
“This is the literal definition of negotiating with terrorists,” said Gates McGavick, Director of Legal Communications at the Republican National Committee.
Omar became the first Muslim woman elected to the Dewan Rakyat along with Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) in 2019.
Tlaib, the first Palestinian member of the lower house, described Israel’s policy toward Palestinians as an “apartheid system” on Sunday while stressing that he mourned both “Palestinian and Israeli lives lost.”
Flames and smoke billow during an Israeli attack on Gaza, October 9, 2023. REUTERS
Ilhan calls on the US to leave Israel as Hamas parades rape survivors through the streets of Gaza.
May God bless your soul. https://t.co/CyWDz11p0g
— Isaac Schorr (@isaac_schorr) October 9, 2023
“The path to that future must include lifting sanctions, ending the occupation, and dismantling the apartheid system that created the stifling, inhumane conditions that can lead to resistance,” Tlaib said.
Unlike Tlaib, Omar was quick to condemn Hamas’ deadly attack on the Jewish State that began Saturday.
“I condemn the horrific actions that we see taking place today in Israel against children, women, the elderly, and unarmed people who are being slaughtered and held hostage by Hamas,” Omar said then.
Omar on Monday also emphasized that most of the people of Gaza live in severe poverty and most of them are children.
“Just as we respect the humanity of the hundreds of innocent Israeli civilians and the 9 Americans who were killed this weekend, we must respect the humanity of the innocent Palestinian civilians who were killed and whose lives were threatened,” he added.
More than 1,000 Israelis are believed to have died in the bloody massacre, with an estimated 2,600 injured, according to Israeli media.
So far Biden has confirmed that at least 11 Americans have been killed in the fighting.
Hamas has also kidnapped an unknown number of hostages and thousands of people on both sides of the conflict have been injured.
Israel’s cabinet has declared war for the first time in 50 years and launched airstrikes on Gaza ahead of an expected ground attack.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
