“Congresswoman Omar has weathered many political storms while speaking up for her beliefs,” writes publisher HarperCollins.
By World Israel News Staff
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), who has gained notoriety for her comments widely viewed as employing anti-Semitic tropes and for promoting the anti-Israel BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) movement, has now announced that she is publishing her life’s story.
“I’m excited to announce my memoir, THIS IS WHAT AMERICA LOOKS LIKE,” Omar tweeted on Tuesday, inviting supporters to order an advance copy.
She calls the book a “multidimensional story of my hopes, aspirations, disappointments, failures, successes, sacrifices, surprises, and unshakable faith in the promise of America.”
“An intimate and rousing memoir by progressive trailblazer Ilhan Omar—the first African refugee, the first Somali-American, and one of the first Muslim women, elected to Congress,” writes HarperCollins, the publisher, on its website.
The publisher says nothing in its description about Omar’s views on Jews and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
Instead, it asserts that “Congresswoman Omar has weathered many political storms and yet maintained her signature grace, wit and love of country—all the while speaking up for her beliefs.”
Omar and fellow-Muslim congresswoman Rashida Tlaib were barred last summer from entering Israel. The Knesset passed a law in 2017 banning anti-Israel boycott supporters from entering the Jewish State.
Their planned itinerary had said that it was a visit to Palestine.
The Israeli interior minister ultimately agreed to allow Tlaib to enter Israel on humanitarian grounds to visit her grandmother in a Ramallah-area village. Tlaib declined, saying that she refused to receive directives on the limitations of her visit.
Omar has been a leading voice supporting the presidential candidacy of Sen. Bernie Sanders, who has labeled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “a reactionary racist,” and who has announced that he is boycotting next week’s national policy conference of the leading pro-Israel lobby group in Washington, AIPAC.
In one of her comments viewed as thinly-veiled anti-Semitism, Omar last year accused AIPAC of paying off American politicians to gain their support for Israel, tweeting: “It’s all about the Benjamins baby.”
Former national security adviser John Bolton blasted Sanders for skipping the upcoming AIPAC event, and tweeted Tuesday: “In the past, he’s called the Israeli govt ‘racist.’ What’s next? @IlhanMN as Sec of State?”