Rashida Tlaib’s Anti-Israel Record is Just the Tip of the Iceberg –– Her Closest Associates Include Terrorists, Anti-Semites & Conspiracy Theorists
News Press Release
April 24, 2019

Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has pointed to new evidence regarding freshman legislator Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D–MI) which shows her anti-Israel record to be merely the tip of the iceberg –– we now know that her closest associates include convicted terrorists, virulent anti-Semites and rabid conspiracy theorists. This is further proof of her drastic unsuitability for political office and Congressional committee appointments and the ZOA urges that she be removed immediately from Congressional committees and thrown out of the Democratic Party.

Rashida Tlaib’s anti-Israel record was already well-known before she was elected in last year’s midterm elections. She calls Israel a “racist country” on the basis of the lie that Israel discriminates against those “darker skinned,” supports the destruction of Israel in favor of an Arab-dominated state (“It has to be one state”), “absolutely” backs withholding U.S. aid from Israel, and openly supports the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which is committed to international ostracism and weakening of Israel with a view to its eventual elimination. 

On her first day in office, Rep. Tlaib placed a so-called correction on the world map in her Congressional office –– a post-it with the word ‘Palestine’ placed with an arrow pointing at Israel, thereby indicating her support for the Palestinian Arab objective of eliminating and replacing the Jewish state of Israel. 

However, the newly revealed evidence of her pernicious associates, produced by the Israel Advocacy Network, shows, among other things, that several of the colleagues Tlaib personally and publicly singled out for praise in assisting her to win office are close associates of Palestinian terrorists with Jewish blood on their hands. In all, 18 individuals she praised who are associated with her are rabid haters of Israel and proud supporters of blood-soaked Palestinian terrorists. Several of them have posted the most blatantly anti-Semitic material.

To name only a few:

  • Ahlam Jbara has made numerous horrible anti-Israel posts extolling terrorists
  • Rasmea Odeh, with whom Tlaib appears together in a posted photo, is a Palestinian terrorist responsible for the murder of two Israeli university students in a 1969 Jerusalem supermarket terrorist bombing for which she served 10 years in an Israeli prison. (Odeh was freed by Israel in an exchange of captives with Palestinian terrorist groups). 
  • Mohammed Ali, of whom Tlaib posted approvingly an image, is another terrorist who stabbed three Israeli soldiers in Jerusalem in an incident that was captured on a video. 
  • Mwafaq Jbara, a Fatah member, is a Palestinian Arab living in America who has posted the most extreme material and who has been in contact with the highest level Palestinian Arab terrorist prisoners, including Hamas co-founder Abdel Aziz Rantisi. Jbara himself was once jailed at the Megiddo prison, which confines many terrorists deemed to be the worst security threats. Jbara has posted blatantly anti-Semitic material, including cartoons showing Israel to be controlled by such diverse characters as the Rothschild banking family and Britain’s Queen Elizabeth (bizarrely depicted as being a Jew), Jews depicted as rats; and so on. Other posts lavishly praise blood-soaked terrorists like Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmad Yassin; Imad Mugniyeh, the Hezbollah terrorist responsible for the murder of 242 U.S. servicemen in a 1982 suicide bombing in Lebanon against U.S. forces stationed there on a UN-sanctioned peace-keeping mission; Hamas bomb-maker Yehiya Ayyash, responsible for the death of 75 Israelis in several suicide bombings –– with Jbara saying approvingly of him in one post that, “when you see the roof an [Israeli] bus flying, you will know it is Ayyash”; Ahmed al-Jbari, the second-in-command of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ military wing; Naif Abu Sharah, a commander in Fatah’s Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, responsible for the murder of at least 25 Israelis; and Bassam Abu Seria, an Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades commander from Nablus. Jbara has also posted a message to Jews with clear connotations of genocide: “Today is for you, but tomorrow will be for us, and Hitler will be a dove in comparison.” Tlaib posted a photo of herself posing with Jbara.
“The Democratic Party must do the only honorable thing, which is to expel her from the party and remove her from Congressional committees. The ZOA calls upon all pro-Israel organizations, Jewish and non-Jewish, and all decent Americans to urge Rep. Tlaib’s removal from the Democratic Party and Congressional committees.” 

 

Among the fourteen other people Rep. Tlaib thanks on social media for supporting her career and fight for political office are other anti-Semites and glorifiers of terrorists, like Maher Abdel Qader, who has posted the well-worn anti-Semitic claim that Jews are not descended at all from biblical Jews but rather from the Khazars. Qader can also be seen posing with arch-terrorist Yasser Arafat and Hamas’ former ‘foreign minister,’ Mahmoud Zahar.

Tlaib also thanked for her support Reema Ahmed, another fan of terrorist Rasmea Odeh; Amer Zahr, who calls Israelis European white supremacists and in one post infers that Israelis are dogs; Linda Sarsour, the anti-Semitic intersectional activist who has tried to exclude supporters of Israel from the Woman’s March she co-chaired, and on whom the ZOA has posted copious material, including this press release; and Iyad Afalqa, a prominent Arab American Democrat who declares that Jews who use Hebrew are being ‘Zionised’ and that Jewish fear of genocide is Zionist propaganda (‘Does Rashida Tlaib support terrorism?,’ Israel Advocacy Movement, Youtube, March 28, 2019).

ZOA National President Morton A. Klein and Chairman Mark Levenson, Esq. said, “It is perfectly clear that Rashida Tlaib is not in the smallest degree ashamed, and has not the slightest inhibition about, being publicly being associated with these anti-Semites, terrorists and glorifiers of Jew-murderers.

“She clearly and knowingly associates with those with the most poisonous views and who support terror.

“Someone who knowingly and enthusiastically consorts with the most virulent anti-Semites, blood-soaked terrorists and conspiracy theorists is clearly beyond the pale, or no-one is beyond the pale.

“The Democratic Party must do the only honorable thing, which is to expel her from the party and remove her from Congressional committees.

“The ZOA calls upon all pro-Israel organizations, Jewish and non-Jewish, and all decent Americans to urge Rep. Tlaib’s removal from the Democratic Party and Congressional committees. 

“A terrible precedent will have been set if someone so obviously tainted with the most pernicious hatreds and associations does not inspire the party to which she belongs to expel her. 

“In that case, the unmistakable message will have been sent that associating with vicious anti-Semites and terrorist shedders of innocent blood is no impediment to political office in the United States of America.”

 

 

Our Mission
ZOA STATEMENT
The ZOA speaks out for Israel – in reports, newsletters, and other publications. In speeches in synagogues, churches, and community events, in high schools and colleges from coast to coast. In e-mail action alerts. In op-eds and letters to the editor. In radio and television appearances by ZOA leaders. Always on the front lines of pro-Israel activism, ZOA has made its mark.
Center for Law & Justice
We work to educate the American public and Congress about legal issues in order to advance the interests of Israel and the Jewish people.
We assist American victims of terrorism in vindicating their rights under the law, and seek to hold terrorists and sponsors of terrorism accountable for their actions.
We fight anti-Semitism and anti-Israel bias in the media and on college campuses.
We strive to enforce existing law and also to create new law in order to safeguard the rights of the Jewish people in the United States and Israel.