The pro-Israel lobbying group is running ads associating the Minnesota congresswoman with Hamas.
On Monday, an ad began appearing on Facebook showing Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar’s face next to Hamas rockets. A caption reads: “When Israel targets Hamas Rep. Omar calls it an ‘act of terrorism.’” The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the powerful pro-Israel lobbying group known as AIPAC, purchased the ads, which are still active as of today. Omar’s office is calling on Facebook to immediately remove the ads, which “blatantly peddle both anti-Muslim hate speech and disinformation,” and on AIPAC to apologize.
Given the number of threats of death and violence the Congresswoman receives on a near-daily basis, it’s not just irresponsible—it’s incitement,” Omar deputy communications director Isi Kirshner-Breen told The Nation.
The ad is factually inaccurate: The Minnesota congresswoman has not stated that Israel targeting Hamas constitutes “an act of terrorism.” In a tweet last week, she used that phrase in reference to “Israeli air strikes killing civilians in Gaza.” According to the latest reports, civilian casualties in Gaza number at least 227. Omar has also repeatedly denounced the firing of rockets by Hamas into Israel, calling it a war crime. Muslim civil rights groups like the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) have criticized AIPAC’s ad for using Islamophobic tropes to attack Omar, calling it a “shameful attempt” to “unleash anti-Muslim bigotry” on one of the two Muslim women in Congress.
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/aipac-ilhan-omar/
On Monday, an ad began appearing on Facebook showing Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar’s face next to Hamas rockets. A caption reads: “When Israel targets Hamas Rep. Omar calls it an ‘act of terrorism.’” The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the powerful pro-Israel lobbying group known as AIPAC, purchased the ads, which are still active as of today. Omar’s office is calling on Facebook to immediately remove the ads, which “blatantly peddle both anti-Muslim hate speech and disinformation,” and on AIPAC to apologize.
Given the number of threats of death and violence the Congresswoman receives on a near-daily basis, it’s not just irresponsible—it’s incitement,” Omar deputy communications director Isi Kirshner-Breen told The Nation.
The ad is factually inaccurate: The Minnesota congresswoman has not stated that Israel targeting Hamas constitutes “an act of terrorism.” In a tweet last week, she used that phrase in reference to “Israeli air strikes killing civilians in Gaza.” According to the latest reports, civilian casualties in Gaza number at least 227. Omar has also repeatedly denounced the firing of rockets by Hamas into Israel, calling it a war crime. Muslim civil rights groups like the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) have criticized AIPAC’s ad for using Islamophobic tropes to attack Omar, calling it a “shameful attempt” to “unleash anti-Muslim bigotry” on one of the two Muslim women in Congress.
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/aipac-ilhan-omar/
