Tlaib condemns Pompeo’s decision to recognize BDS as antisemitic

In response to Biden’s nomination of Antony Blinken as the US Secretary of State, Democratic Representative Rashida Tlaib said on Monday she hoped Blinken would not try to suppress her right to speak out against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his racist policies.

Her comments were a reference to the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo who declared last week that the US will label the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign as “anti-Semitic.”

The next day, Tlaib denounced Pompeo’s decision and encouraged Biden’s administration to “change course” in policy.

“Sec. Pompeo has moved to suppress BDS, a peaceful protest movement protected by the 1st Amendment. I hope that Mr. Blinken and President-Elect Biden’s Administration will change course from Trump’s State Department & not target or suppress support of Palestinian human rights,” Tlaib tweeted.

However, many Republicans and Donald Trump supporters responded to Tlaib with accusations of anti-Semitism because Blinken is Jewish and a stepson of a Holocaust survivor.

Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) tweeted, “You can just say you’re worried because he’s Jewish.”

“Biden names a Jew to his cabinet. What’s Rashida’s response?! ‘Welp, as long as that Judische pick doesn’t stop me from focusing my hatred on one country, Israel, then he’s a good Jew!” Americans Against Antisemitism founder Dov Hikind reacted.

“You are absolutely free to be as antisemitic, racist, dishonest and hateful as you like Rashida,” author Chad Felix Greene wrote on Twitter.

Rashida Tlaib is one of the first two Muslim women elected to the US Congress, and the first Palestinian-American member of congress.

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