Linda Sarsour attacks Jews’ ‘dual loyalty’ while backing pro-BDS congresswoman

Sarsour attacks “folks who masquerade as progressives but always choose their allegiance to Israel over their commitment to democracy and free speech.” 

By Atara Beck, World Israel News

American-Muslim political activist Linda Sarsour, a leader of the Women’s March on Washington, is urging her followers to sign a petition in support of Congresswoman-elect Ilhan Omar, who is “being attacked for saying that she supports BDS and the right for people to engage in constitutionally protected freedoms.”

The petition, titled #IStandWithIlhan, opens with the sentence: “We stand with you in the face of Islamophobic organizations attempting to attack you and undermine your leadership.”

“We need YOU,” Sarsour posted Thursday evening on Facebook, telling readers not to “stand idly while a brave Black Muslim American woman is targeted for saying she will uphold the constitution of the United States of America as a member of the US Congress.”

“She is the kind of unapologetic leader we have been waiting for,” Sarsour stated.

According to Sarsour, opposition to Ilhan “is not only coming from the right-wing but some folks who masquerade as progressives but always choose their allegiance to Israel over their commitment to democracy and free speech.”

Attorney Marc Zell, chairman of Republicans Overseas Israel, called Sarsour’s allegation “ludicrous,” noting that BDS is certainly not something backed by the Constitution.

“The constitution is “completely silent on the issue,” Zell said, explaining that “it’s a matter of foreign policy decided by the American president and his administration.”

In fact, “governors and legislators have adopted anti-BDS legislation,” he continued. Most recently, Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin signed a state executive order on Thursday making that state the 26th to enact an anti-BDS measure.

Indeed, according to the working definition of anti-Semitism of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, “manifestations of anti-Semitism might include the targeting of the state of Israel, conceived as a Jewish collectivity” and “accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel, or to the alleged priorities of Jews worldwide, than to the interests of their own nations.”

In a November 2012 tweet, Omar said that “Israel has hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel.”

Sarsour’s classic display of anti-Semitism

Sarsour also “raises the specter of dual loyalty,” Zell told World Israel News, calling it “another classic display of an anti-Semitic meme, suggesting American Jews who support the State of Israel are somehow less patriotic. This argument was raised over 100 years ago by Edwin Montagu in his opposition to the Balfour Declaration in 1917. Today, these kinds of arguments are recognized as camouflaged anti-Semitism.”

The Balfour Declaration, penned in a letter by then-U.K. Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour to Lord Rothschild, a leader of the British Jewish community, for transmission to the Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland, was a statement of support for the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people in the Land of Israel, issued on Nov. 2, 1917.

Hollywood celebrities Alyssa Milano and Debra Messing have distanced themselves from the Women’s March due to the refusal of the organizers to denounce anti-Semitism.

World Israel News messaged Sarsour, asking what being black or Muslim had to do with support for BDS and on what basis she claims her opponents are Islamophobes. As of posting, there has been no response.

anti-SemitismBDSIlhan OmarLinda SarsourMarc Zell