Democrat Mohamed Khairullah was not allowed to attend a White House event last year because he could not get Secret Service clearance.
By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News
An anti-Israel New Jersey mayor challenging longtime congressman Bill Pascrell in a Democratic primary Tuesday was denied entry to a White House event last year due to his inability to receive security clearance.
Mohamed Khairullah, a Muslim who has headed the municipality of Prospect Park for the last 18 years, came to the U.S. in 1980 from his native Syria.
He was asked last April to a White House celebration of the Eid al-Fitr holiday that marks the end of Ramadan. Politico reported at the time that he said “he was within minutes of entering the White House…when he was told he was not cleared by the Secret Service to attend the event.”
Khairullah was not told why he wasn’t cleared, which is standard practice of the Secret Service, but he claimed that it was because his name was on a federal “watch list” of terrorists.
He has sued the Biden administration in order to “disband this illegal list” that he says is based on purely on Arab “names, ethnicities and religion,” while giving those named “no due process” to clear their names.
The lawsuit was revealed by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the largest Muslim civil rights organization in the U.S., which has also challenged the watch list in the past.
Khairullah has blasted his incumbent rival, Rep. Bill Pascrell, for voting to send aid to Israel to fight Hamas, and calling for a ceasefire only if Hamas releases the hostages that its fighters and other terrorists abducted during their October 7 invasion of Israel in which they massacred 1,200 people.
He has also attacked the Biden administration’s handling of “the Israeli aggression and daily massacres against the Palestinians in Gaza,” and touted his credentials as being “an outspoken advocate for immediate and permanent ceasefire and end to the Israeli occupation of Palestine.”
These views would put him squarely inside the so-called Squad of progressive, pro-Palestinian Congressional Democrats who have been pressuring President Joe Biden to end aid to Israel and recognize a Palestinian state.
He recently posted pictures of himself with Squad members Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn) on his social media accounts.
Bowman is facing a serious primary challenge from a pro-Israel Westchester county executive, George Latimer.
Pascrell, 87, has served the 9th Congressional district since 1997. The district has a large Jewish population in such areas as Hudson, Passaic and Bergen counties. He has easily won reelection for the last 25 years.