The World Jewish Congress said it found Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s call to boycott HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher “deeply disturbing” after the comedian said the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement against Israel should not be a Democratic litmus test.
“Serious questions need to be asked about Tlaib’s motivation in supporting the extremist BDS Movement, which is allied with terrorists and is not shy about its ultimate aim of destroying Israel,” WJC President Ronald Lauder said Sunday in a press release.
“The WJC fully supports the constitutionally guaranteed right to free speech and has borne witness to the historic horrors associated with boycotts and the suppression of free speech,” he continued. “Adolf Hitler infamously boycotted Jewish-owned businesses and worked to ban those in the entertainment and media industries who were critical of the Nazi party. After annexing Austria in 1938, Hitler quickly targeted for censure the Kabarett satirical reviews renowned for their expression of independent thought.”
Lauder drove his point home by explaining, “We Jews know what boycotts can lead to. We find it concerning that a member of the U.S. Congress would lobby for BDS and so easily suggest that Maher’s show should be boycotted simply because he expressed an opinion with which she disagrees.”
Tlaib, 43, suggested a boycott of Maher after he railed against the Michigan Democrat on his Friday show.
“Maybe folks should boycott his show,” Tlaib said on Twitter. “I am tired of folks discrediting a form of speech that is centered on equality and freedom. This is exactly how they tried to discredit & stop the boycott to stand up against the apartheid in S. Africa. It didn’t work then and it won’t now.”
Maybe folks should boycott his show.
I am tired of folks discrediting a form of speech that is centered on equality and freedom. This is exactly how they tried to discredit & stop the boycott to stand up against the apartheid in S. Africa. It didn’t work then and it won’t now. https://t.co/Oa49ZVfrVN
— Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) August 17, 2019
Maher, 63, called the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement a “bullshit purity test.”
“It’s predicated on this notion — it’s very shallow thinking — that the Jews are, in Israel, mostly white and the Palestinians are brown. So they must be innocent and correct, and the Jews must be wrong. As if the occupation came right out of the blue, that this completely peaceful people found themselves occupied,” the host said.
Last week, Israel denied Tlaib and Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar access to the country over the pair’s support of the movement.
