Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt addressed the accusations of anti-Semitism levied against Democratic Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar during a Thursday morning interview on CNN.
Omar stoked outrage with comments she made last week regarding the “dual loyalty” she believes members of Congress are expected to have toward Israel. The situation gained even more traction when Omar doubled down on her statements on Twitter over the weekend.
Many of her colleagues on both sides of the aisle have condemned her statements, while others have stood by her. (RELATED: Omar Facing More Accusations Of Anti-Semitism)
WATCH:
“This accusation that Jews have a dual loyalty or require people to pledge allegiance to a foreign power it is an anti-Semitic charge that has been used against the Jewish people literally for hundreds of years, long before there was a state of Israel. So we are offended by this anti-Semitism,” Greenblatt began.
“What do you want to see happen? What do you think of this resolution?” Bolduan asked.
He responded:
Well, it’s hard for me to comment on a resolution whose text I haven’t read. What we want to see — what we called for earlier in the week, is for the House of Representatives to clearly and forcefully and unambiguously stand up against anti-Semitism. Let me just say, this doesn’t preclude the House from taking action against other forms of bigotry. It’s reprehensible that Representative Omar was targeted because of her faith, and she has been the victim of smears, she has been targeted, frankly. We called out when she was attacked over the weekend in that poster in West Virginia.
Greenblatt was referring to a letter he wrote addressed to House Speaker Pelosi calling for a resolution condemning anti-Semitism. The text of the resolution does not mention her by name, and it widely condemns all hate, not anti-Semitism in particular.
WASHINGTON, DC – MARCH 06: Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) participates in a House Education and Labor Committee Markup on the H.R. 582 Raise The Wage Act, in the Rayburn House Office Building on March 6, 2019 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
“Look, we think Americans of all faiths, of all races, of all walks of life should stand up against any form of intolerance. But the issue at hand is the repeated invocation of anti-Semitism,” Greenblatt answered in response to questions about the resolution addressing not just anti-Semitism, but all forms of hate. (RELATED: Omar Facing More Accusations Of Anti-Semitism)
“I haven’t read the text so it’s hard to say. I don’t know exactly how it calls out the anti-Semitism. But I don’t want to see this issue all lives mattered,” he continued. “The issue at hand is an invocation of a slander that’s been used by people on the extreme right and the extreme left to target, to diminish, to marginalize Jews.”