Ilhan Omar fires back as McCarthy confirms she’ll be kept off House Committees

Progressive U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar said Wednesday that the only reason why Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is moving to ban her from her House committees is because she is Muslim.

McCarthy (R-Calif.) confirmed Tuesday that Omar (D-Minn.), as well as Reps. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) would be blocked from serving on House committees.

Progressive U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar said Wednesday that the only reason why Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is moving to ban her from her House committees is because she is Muslim.

McCarthy (R-Calif.) confirmed Tuesday that Omar (D-Minn.), as well as Reps. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) would be blocked from serving on House committees. The speaker first threatened to strip the trio of their assignments last year, a move that supporters and critics alike viewed as retaliation for Democrats removing GOP Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Arizona’s Paul Gosar from their committee seats after Greene’s numerous white supremacist remarks and conspiracy theories. Gosar was removed after he shared social media posts depicting the animated assassinations of President Joe Biden and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).

“As crude and as cynical as it is for the nativist factions in our government, targeting Muslims is reliably good politics.”

Interviewed by HuffPost for an article published Wednesday, Omar—who was a member of the House Foreign Affairs and Labor and Education committees in the 117th Congress—accused McCarthy of being motivated by bigotry.

“I do not actually think that he has a reason outside of me being Muslim and thinking I should not be,” she said. “If you look at the comments from Republicans, it’s precisely for only that reason.”

Omar has consistently condemned Israeli crimes in the illegally occupied Palestinian West Bank and East Jerusalem and in the besieged Gaza Strip. These include the occupation, the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah and desert Bedouins, the internationally recognized crime of apartheid, the killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza invasions, the unlawful colonization of the West Bank by Jewish settlers, and extrajudicial killings such as that of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh. Omar has also been a vocal critic of the $3 billion in mostly unconditional annual U.S. military aid to Israel.

For these criticisms, Omar has been branded by both Republicans and Democrats as an “antisemite,” a tactic often used by Israeli officials and supporters of Israel in a bid to delegitimize condemnation of the country’s human rights crimes.

Eight U.S. Jewish groups last month released a statement opposing McCarthy’s pledge to keep Omar off any committees.

“As Jewish-American organizations, we oppose Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy’s pledge to strip Rep. Ilhan Omar of her House Foreign Affairs Committee seat based on false accusations that she is anti-Semitic or anti-Israel. We may not agree with some of Congresswoman Omar’s opinions, but we categorically reject the suggestion that any of her policy positions or statements merit disqualification from her role on the committee,” the groups said.

Originally published at Commondreams.org.