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The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is facing accusations of Islamophobia and incitement after doubling down on attacks against Muslim-American congresswomen Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib.
AIPAC, a pro-Israel advocacy group that presents itself as bipartisan, has long been running attack ads against Israel’s critics in Congress who are mostly progressive Democrats.
On Wednesday, Jeremy Slevin, Omar’s communications director, slammed the group for a sponsored post claiming that the legislator sees “no difference between America and the Taliban”, “Israel and Hamas” and “democracies and terrorists”.
Slevin said the language used by AIPAC is “identical” to hate messages the congresswoman receives.
“Make no mistake: AIPAC is putting Rep. Omar’s life at risk with repeated Islamophobic attack ads,” he wrote.
“It shouldn’t have to be stated, but baselessly linking Muslim-Americans to terrorism is *the* textbook example of Islamophobia and is routinely used to silence advocacy for Palestinian human rights,” he continued.
Following Slevin’s post, the Council on American Islamic Relations, a Washington-based civil rights organisation, released a statement condemning AIPAC for what it called an “Islamophobic, dishonest and dangerous ad campaign” against Omar.
“AIPAC’s attempt to spread this vile, Islamophobic language to Facebook users could incite threats of violence against Representative Omar and other American Muslim leaders. Put simply, AIPAC’s bigotry is placing Ilhan Omar’s life at risk,” said CAIR Deputy Executive Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell.
“Facebook should immediately take down these vile ads and congressional leaders must condemn AIPAC for continuing to incite Islamophobic hatred against Representative Omar.”
The outrage did not prompt AIPAC to reverse course; in fact, the pro-Israel group reiterated its message linking Omar, a Minnesota Democrat, to terrorism.
“Your baseless attack on us can’t deflect from [Omar’s] attack on America and Israel,” AIPAC said in a tweet in response to Slevin.
It is outrageous for Rep. Omar to put the U.S. and Israel on the same level as the Taliban and Hamas. There is no moral equivalence between democratic allies and the terrorists who target them.”
The pro-Israel group was referring to controversy in June when Omar questioned Secretary of State Antony Blinken about the US administration’s opposition investigations into alleged war crimes in Afghanistan and the Palestinian territories by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
“In both of these cases, if domestic courts can’t or won’t pursue justice – and we oppose the ICC – where do we think the victims of the supposed crimes can go for justice?” Omar asked Blinken at a congressional hearing.
She later posted a video of the questions that she raised during the hearing on social media with a caption that unleashed a flood of condemnation from both Republicans and Democrats.
“We must have the same level of accountability and justice for all victims of crimes against humanity,” Omar wrote.
She said they have seen unthinkable atrocities committed by the US, Hamas, Israel, Afghanistan, and the Taliban.
Aljazeera/Lateefah
