Squad’ Members Associate with Promoter of Holocaust Denial fundraiser
Democratic Representatives Jamaal Bowman, Cori Bush, Ilhan Omar, and Summer Lee recently attended an event with Maher Abdel-qader, known for promoting anti-Semitic views. Despite his controversial past, the Squad members’ association with Abdel-qader highlights ongoing tensions and political challenges, particularly concerning Israel and Iran. The event raises questions about the alignment of political figures with contentious ideologies.
Jamaal Bowman, Cori Bush, Summer Lee, and Ilhan Omar pose for pictures with Maher Abdel-qader
Democratic Reps. Jamaal Bowman (N.Y.), Cori Bush (Mo.), Ilhan Omar (Minn.), and Summer Lee (Pa.) posed for photos with a fundraiser last week who has spread anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and founded a Facebook group where Hamas terrorists are praised.
The far-left “Squad” members appeared alongside Maher Abdel-qader at an April Arab American Heritage and Culture Month ceremony hosted by the Arab America Foundation and moderated by Democratic Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib. The Democrats’ coziness with Abdel-qader comes despite his past track record of spreading anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and Holocaust denial. He once shared a video that described Jews as “Satanic.”
Abdel-qader also is the founder and administrator of a Facebook group called “Palestinian American Congress,” where members have posted anti-Semitic content and cheered Hamas terrorists.
Abdel-qader added Tlaib to the group in February 2018. As of November 2023, the congresswoman was still listed as a member. An Oct. 12 post in the Facebook group read, “We don’t want to throw you in the sea … we want you to ride it back from where you came,” accompanied by a photo of a Hamas terrorist with an elderly Israeli hostage. Another post a week later commended the “achievements” of “resistance” fighters after they killed Israeli soldiers.
The “Squad” members’ decisions to pose for pictures with Abdel-qader come as many face tight primary races against pro-Israel candidates.
Abdel-qader served as Tlaib’s finance committee chair during her first congressional bid in 2018 and has donated thousands of dollars to her campaign. Tlaib publicly thanked him for his help multiple times during her 2018 campaign. In November, he advertised a fundraiser for Lee and Tlaib whom he said “wholeheartedly” support the “just cause for Palestine.”
Lee, who is facing Pittsburgh borough councilwoman Bhavini Patel (D.) on Tuesday, joined Bowman and Bush in equally condemning Iran and Israel after Iran’s unprecedented attack on the Jewish state in April.
“We must oppose all violent escalations right now. I condemn Iran’s retaliatory strikes on Israel & Israel’s strike on the Iranian consulate. I agree with President Biden’s immediate call for de-escalation & making clear to Netanyahu that we oppose any Israeli counterattacks,” Lee said.
Bowman, who blamed Israel’s “blockade of Gaza” for Oct. 7, finds himself 17 points behind Westchester County executive George Latimer (D.). Local rabbis encouraged Latimer to run, citing Bowman’s hostility toward the Jewish state. In the wake of Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack, the two-term congressman has accused Israel of “mass murder,” “genocide,” and “ethnic cleansing.”
Bowman last week rallied to the defense of Omar’s daughter, Isra Hirsi, who was suspended from Columbia University for her role in an unsanctioned anti-Israel tent encampment which called for an “indefinite occupation” of school property.
Bush, who faces St. Louis County prosecuting attorney Wesley Bell (D.), has repeatedly accused Israel of committing “genocide.” The St. Louis congresswoman was one of just two House members who voted against a January bill that barred terrorists who participated in the Oct. 7 attack from entering the United States. Bush said the bill would “target immigrants and incite anti-Palestinian hate.”
A coalition of Jewish organizations accused Bush of “fanning the flames of anti-Semitism” and showing “little outrage against the horrendous attacks.”
“Representative Bush has shown little outrage against the horrendous attacks by an organization whose very charter calls for the killing of all Jewish people,” the coalition wrote in a November letter.
Tlaib in April refused to condemn chants of “death to America” and “death to Israel” from protesters in her district, instead accusing Fox News of using “racist tropes.”
Bowman, Bush, Lee, Omar, Tlaib, and Abdel-qader did not respond to requests for comment.
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