Zionist Organization of America President Morton A. Klein, Chair Mark Levenson, Esq., and Director of Special Projects Liz Berney, Esq. released the following statement:

Note: ZOA does not endorse or reject any candidates for public office.

The ZOA is alarmed and appalled that Vice President Joe Biden joined the following notorious Jew-haters and Israel-bashers at the “Million Muslim Votes Summit” on July 20:

• Linda Sarsour: Sarsour infamously: called young Arabs who throw rocks at Israelis “the definition of courage”; stated “nothing is creepier than Zionism”; declared that she was “honored and privileged” to stand with convicted PFLP terrorist Rasmea Odeh (who murdered two innocent Jewish students and injured nine others in a supermarket bombing attack and bombed the British Consulate in Jerusalem); tweeted support for the intifadas (the terror wars in which Palestinian-Arab terrorists murdered and maimed thousands of innocent Jews in bombing, stabbing, machete, shooting, and other attacks); falsely blames Israel for American police killings of Blacks in America; tweeted that she wished she could take the vaginas away from ex-Muslim female-genital-mutilation-survivor and anti-radical Islam activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali and pro-Israel Lebanese-American Christian Brigitte Gabriel; promotes BDS to economically destroy Israel; supports virulent antisemite Louis Farrakhan; and more.     

True to form, during this week’s “Million Muslim Votes Summit” with VP Biden, after Sarsour bragged about her recent arrest (for trespassing on the Kentucky attorney general’s home, and intimidating him: the protestors called for burning down the AG’s home if they didn’t get what they wanted), Sarsour said that defeating Trump was about “defeating fascism,” and demanded ending the “occupation of the Palestinian people,” (by which Sarsour meant ending Israel) and urged: “If you want to see an end to the military occupation of the Palestinian people, then I need you on the streets all the time.”

• Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-MN):  Omar infamously: wrote to a judge to demand “compassion” and lighter sentences for convicted ISIS terrorists; falsely tweeted that Israel is “evil” and an “apartheid regime”; called Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s existence a problem; tweeted the antisemitic trope that Congress only supports Israel for money (“It’s all about the Benjamins, baby”); lied to her constituents by denying her BDS support to get elected, and then promoted BDS in Congress, including by sponsoring an outrageous Congressional resolution to support anti-Jewish, anti-Israel boycotts, that analogizes such antisemitic boycotts to anti-Nazi boycotts; was only one of two legislators who voted against her state’s anti-BDS bill; demanded ending Iran sanctions despite increased Iranian nuclear and missile violations; employed Mahyar Sorour as her senior legislative assistant a leadership board candidate for NIAC – Iran’s apparent lobbying arm in the U.S.; belittled 9-11 and laughed about al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, and al-Shabaab terrorists; speaks to anti-Israel, unindicted co-conspirator for funding Hamas, CAIR groups, stated that the danger to Americans is “white men” – not Islamic terrorists; and blamed supposed U.S. “involvement in other people’s affairs” for terrorism against innocent Americans. ZOA’s analysis of Omar’s Federal Election Commission filings revealed that Omar is funded by the worst anti-Israel propagandists and haters.

Yet, at this week’s Million Muslim Votes Summit with Biden, Omar was praised as “quite a champion for our community. We’re so grateful for her leadership in Congress.”  

• Salam al-Marayati, founder of the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC): Marayati infamously: praised the terror organization Hezbollah (which openly calls for Israel’s destruction) as “only fighting for freedom” and praised Hezbollah’s activities as “honorable”; opposes Israel’s very existence and called Israel’s re-establishment in 1948 a “crime” and “unjust” and called for “working to overturn this injustice (meaning calling for Israel’s total destruction); “justified” the Palestinian-Arab bombing of the Sbarro pizza store (in which 15 innocent Jews were murdered and over 100 were injured) as the fruit of Israeli policy; called Israel “the apartheid brutal state of Israel,” “butchers,” and “racist”; condemned U.S. strikes against al-Qaeda following the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania as “illegal, immoral, and illogical”; gives a platform to holocaust deniers in his magazine; called Israel a 9-11 terror suspect; tweets that Israeli sovereign territory is “Palestinian land”; retweets, uses, and speaks at events of the hostile-to-Israel group J Street to undermine and demonize Israel; repeatedly falsely accuses Israel of “war crimes,” “atrocities,” “a history of injustice”; and Al-Marayati tweeted about speaking alongside Joe Biden this week.

• Nihad Awad. Awad co-founded and is executive director of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), an unindicted co-conspirator involved in funneling money to terror group Hamas, and previously was the public relations director for the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP), which provided material support to Hamas and was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Palestine Committee. Awad infamously: openly declared that he supports Hamas and justified Hamas’s unprovoked violence and killing of innocent civilians as a “right to defend themselves against Israeli occupation” (see video of Awad stating he used to support the PLO but now supports the Hamas movement); stated that many U.S. presidents are servants to Israel; called U.S. law enforcement actions against Islamic terrorists the product of “extremists, including the Christian Right and the pro-Israel lobby” to target Islam and Muslims; called for an Arab “return” to “all Palestine” (meaning Israel’s destruction); and at the “Million Muslim Votes Summit” with Joe Biden this week, Nihad Awad demanded conditioning aid to Israel, called for fighting to dismantle the terrorist watch list (which keeps Americans safe), and claimed that “Islamophobia has been normalized.”

ZOA accordingly demands that Biden apologize for his joint appearance with vicious antisemites Sarsour, Omar, Al-Marayati, and Awad, and retract his acceptance of endorsements from Jew-haters/Israel-bashers Ilhan Omar and Farrakhan-supporter Keith Ellison.

ZOA is also alarmed at the policies Biden announced at the “Million Muslim Votes Summit” and in a written statement to the Summit’s organizer, Emgage. ZOA demands that Biden retract these.

Biden’s alarming announced policies include:

• “Championing” Palestinian-Arab “rights” to a (terror) state; 
• Ending travel restrictions that keep Americans safe from un-vettable people from terrorist-promoting countries “on day one”; 
• Encouraging teaching the Islamic faith in public schools (!); religion should be kept out of schools. 
• Rejoining the antisemitic Israel-bashing UN Human Rights Council; 
• Condemning moderate Arab leaders of Egypt and Saudi Arabia;
• Reinstating the catastrophic Iran deal;
• “Opposing settlement expansion” (euphemisms for condemning Jews who add a nursery room onto their home in Jerusalem suburbs; there has been no “settlement expansion” for decades);  
• “Reopen[ing] the U.S. consulate (which caters solely to Arabs) in East Jerusalem” (the consulate is actually in West Jerusalem; re-opening it is a discriminatory, diplomatic insult to Israel);
• “Find[ing] a way to re-open the PLO’s diplomatic mission in Washington” (despite the fact that the PLO mission violates U.S. law); and

•  Resuming sending hundreds of millions of U.S. tax dollars to the Palestinians (which would enable the Palestinian Authority’s $400 million per year of “pay to slay” payments to Arabs to murder Jews and Americans).