Harris ignores Jewish groups’ concern over meeting with pro-Hamas antisemite

Siblani has also lauded Hamas terrorists as ‘freedom fighters,’  and urged Arabs to fight Israelis with ‘guns.’

By Chuck Ross, The Washington Free Beacon

Jewish groups condemned the Biden-Harris administration earlier this year for meeting with Michigan activist Osama Siblani, citing his record of anti-Semitic and pro-Hamas remarks. Those concerns appear to have fallen on deaf ears at Kamala Harris’s campaign headquarters.

Harris campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez met Thursday with Siblani, the publisher of the Michigan-based Arab American News, in Dearborn, according to reports.

Siblani has been a vocal critic of President Joe Biden over his support for Israel in the Jewish state’s war against Hamas, referring to him as “Genocide Joe.”

Siblani has also lauded Hamas terrorists as “freedom fighters,” accused pro-Israel lawmakers of being “bought” by the “Zionist lobby,” and urged Arabs to fight Israelis with “guns.”

Those remarks prompted Jewish groups such as the Anti-Defamation League to blast the Biden White House for meeting with Siblani in February.

ADL chief executive Jonathan Greenblatt said he was “deeply disturbed at the inclusion of Osama Siblani in a meeting with top Biden officials,” calling the activist “simply the wrong choice to serve as an interlocutor with the administration as they hear from the local Muslim community.”

The criticism apparently failed to sway the Harris campaign, which sat down with Siblani and other “Arab-American leaders” in a meeting it did not tout publicly, according to the Detroit Free Press.

The meeting comes amid reports of optimism among the anti-Israel left that Harris will adopt more hardline policies toward Israel should she win in November.

Several administration officials who resigned over Biden’s support for Israel, for example, expressed hope last month that a Harris presidency will bring about a break in U.S. relations with the Jewish State.

At the same time, anti-Israel activists have pledged to move forward with protests that could derail next week’s Democratic National Convention.

Organizers of the “uncommitted” movement that pulled hundreds of thousands of primary votes from Biden, meanwhile, have warned Harris that she will lose if she fails to endorse an Israeli arms embargo.

The Harris campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

Siblani has referred to Hamas as “freedom fighters” and bragged that he refused “to apologize for Hamas firing rockets at Israel” during a conference call with White House officials in 2021.

He urged Arabs in 2022 to fight Israel with “stones” and “guns” and praised the fedayeen, or Islamic militants. He cheered Houthi terrorists as “the maker of peace and dignity” after they declared war against Israel last year. And he said Iran had “a right to defend itself” after its drone attack against Israel in April.

In 2006, Siblani said then-President George W. Bush and Congress were “being bought by the Zionist lobby.”

Harris has embraced a more critical view towards Israel in the weeks since launching her presidential campaign. She rankled Israeli officials last month after she said she “will not be silent” about suffering in Gaza and raised “serious concerns” over the issue in a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Harris spoke this month with Abbas Alawieh and Layla Elabed, leaders of the movement to use uncommitted delegates to force Democratic leaders to withdraw support for Israel.

Harris’s running mate, Minnesota governor Tim Walz (D.), has a history of embracing anti-Semites and other opponents of Israel.

In 2019, he spoke at an event hosted by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a group with extensive ties to Hamas. He was photographed with Hatem Bazian, a prominent activist who has called for “intifada.”

Walz has also repeatedly praised Imam Asad Zaman, a Michigan cleric who promoted a neo-Nazi film that praised Adolf Hitler.

AntisemitismHamas supporterKamala HarrisOsama Siblani