‘Squad’ silent on Taliban, but vocal on BDS

The Taliban have a long history of extreme anti-women policies which would appear to be in direct opposition to the Squad’s decidedly feminist values.

By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News

Despite their vocal calls to boycott Israel and tearful speeches on alleged Israeli “aggression” towards Palestinian children during May 2021’s Operation Guardian of the Walls, members of the so-called progressive “Squad” have not spoken up about the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.

The Taliban have a long history of extreme anti-women policies, such as forbidding women from working outside of the home or attending school, which would appear to be in direct opposition to the Squad’s decidedly feminist values.

But Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI,) Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Cori Bush (D-MP) have so far stayed silent about any potential boycott or sanctions that should be leveled against Afghanistan in protest of its overtly sexist government.

The lack of public statement on the issue comes at odds with the Squad’s tendency to publicly speak out on social justice related issues.

The Washington Free Beacon reached out to Tlaib, Omar, and Bush, all of whom have previously expressed support for the BDS movement and demanded that the U.S. cut foreign aid to Israel.

They declined to comment as to whether or not they planned to support a boycott of Afghanistan’s Taliban-led government.

This isn’t the first time that the Squad has remained silent on a breaking event when it did not fit their social justice narrative.

In July 2021, Omar, Tlaib, and Ocasio Cortez did not mention, acknowledge, or condemn a brutal anti-Semitic stabbing attack on a Chabad rabbi in Boston via their social media accounts.

The attack was perpetrated by a Muslim Egyptian national.

Rep. Ayanna Pressley, another Squad member who serves as the representative for much of Boston, said on Twitter that she was “praying for Rabbi Noginski and his family.

“Anti-Semitism is a clear and persistent threat to our communities,” she wrote.

Her statement drew ire from Twitter users, who said her vocal criticism of the Israeli government during the May 2021 conflict with Gaza fostered an anti-Semitic atmosphere in which attacks against Jews have spiked.

Also in July 2021, Tlaib and six other Democrats called for the U.S .Treasury to stop granting tax exemptions to American charitable organizations active in Judea and Samaria and eastern Jerusalem.