The Anti-Defamation League has condemned Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) for hosting a private celebratory dinner on Saturday featuring anti-Israel activist Abbas Hamideh, who has a “delusional ISIS-like ideology” and described Israel as a “terrorist entity,” JNS reported.
“No matter your political persuasion, all leaders—and Americans—need to unequivocally speak out against anti-Semitism and hate,” posted ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt in a Twitter thread. “That especially goes for members of Congress.”
Hamideh, a radical Palestinian activist, made a series of inflammatory remarks on social media, including praising Palestinian terrorists and Iranian-backed terrorist group Hezbollah.
“Always loved this heroic resistance leader! Long live Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah!” Hamideh wrote in 2015. Hezbollah is designated as a terrorist organization by a large portion of the international community, including the United States.
The firebrand Palestinian activist also charged that Israel has no right to exist and called for Israeli “Zionist terrorist” Jews to return to Europe. He previously wrote that “there’s more Jewish history in Brooklyn, New York and Poland than in occupied Palestine” and said Israeli Jews should move to New York.
“Days ago, @RashidaTlaib was photographed at an event with Abbas Hamideh, a man who has praised terrorist groups Hamas & Hezbollah and equated Zionists with Nazis,” Greenblatt said on Twitter. “We ask her to clarify his attendance and denounce his anti-Semitism.”
According to media reports, a leading Chicago anti-Israel activist, Jbara Mwafaq, was also present at the dinner. Mwafaq, a leader in the Chicago Coalition for Justice in Palestine (CCJP) group, previously advocated for the annihilation of the Jewish State with Palestine “from the river to the sea.”
Tlaib defended on Tuesday her meeting with the notorious activists. “Right wing media targeting me again rather than focusing on the President’s reckless government shutdown,” she tweeted. “Yes, I am Muslim and Palestinian. Get over it.”
Last week, Tlaib was involved in another controversy, when she was accused of anti-Semitism for comments she made about Senate Republicans for planning to introduce a measure banning boycotts of Israel, saying: “They forgot what country they represent.”
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