Harris outreach director claims ‘Zionists’ control American politics

Egyptian-American Brenda Abdelall no longer holds this view, says Harris campaign.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

The identity of the new outreach director to the Arab-American community for the Harris-Walz campaign has raised some eyebrows after antisemitic statements surfaced from her college days.

Brenda Abdelall had told The New York Sun at a 2002 American Muslim Council (AMC) convention that “The Zionists have a strong voice in American politics. I would say they’re controlling a lot of it.”

As an example, she gave the recent primary loss of a five-term congressman, Earl Hilliard, after he voted against a resolution condemning Palestinian suicide bombings and a bill to increase aid to Israel.

Pro-Israel groups then donated to his opponent, who had criticized these votes.

Abdelall, who was a political science and Arabic/Islamic studies student at the time, told the paper, however, that she did not quite agree with a speaker who had said that “Zionists are destroying America.”

“Destroying is a harsh word,” she said.

The AMC is an Islamic organization and charity that has been known for its antisemitic and anti-Israel views.

In 2006 it took part in the defense of University of South Florida professor and Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader Sami Al-Arian, who pled guilty to a charge of conspiracy to help the terrorist organization and was sentenced to just under five years in prison.

Abdelall’s mother was one of the founders of the group’s Ann Arbor, Michigan chapter.

The Harris campaign pushed back against the accusing fingers pointed over the director’s appointment, saying that “These 2002 comments do not reflect Brenda’s current views, nor those of the campaign.”

“In her role at DHS [Department of Homeland Security], Brenda worked closely on the implementation of the country’s first National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism,” a spokesperson said Friday.

“She also led efforts for the first United We Stand summit, a White House event to counter hate-fueled violence, like we tragically saw with the mass shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue,”  the spokesperson added.

Abdelall, who is of Egyptian extraction, rose to the position of assistant secretary at the DHS towards the beginning of President Joe Biden’s term in office.

Her new job entails trying to convince Arab citizens to vote for Biden even though many vehemently disagree with his support for Israel in its ongoing war against the Hamas terror organization that led an invasion of the Jewish state on October 7, murdering 1,200 and taking 251 captive, including the elderly and infants.

Her home state of Michigan is one of the few battleground states, and it contains the largest Arab-American population in the country.

It is also where more than 100,000 people voted “uncommitted” in the Democratic primaries to indicate their discontent with the administration’s Middle East policy, a significant number that could potentially tilt the entire election with its 15 electoral votes up for grabs.

2024 Electionsanti-ZionistArab MuslimKamala HarrisMichigan voters