Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., said Monday she condemned anti-Semitism, a few weeks after she quoted the author of “The Color Purple,” who has been accused of supporting the work of an anti-Semite.
“Last week, in support of a fellow Congresswoman, I chose a quote from Alice Walker … Unfortunately, I was unaware of the author’s past statements,” Pressley said of the author.
“I fully condemn and denounce anti-Semitism, prejudice and bigotry in all their forms – and the hateful actions they embolden,” she added. “I appreciate my friends, including my brothers and sisters in the Jewish community, who brought these statements to my attention.”
I fully condemn and denounce anti-Semitism, prejudice and bigotry in all their forms – and the hateful actions they embolden. I appreciate my friends, including my brothers and sisters in the Jewish community, who brought these statements to my attention. 2/2
— Ayanna Pressley (@AyannaPressley) January 14, 2019
Walker called “And the Truth Shall Set You Free” by David Icke a “curious person’s dream come true,” when most critics say it is an anti-Semitic writing that touts Holocaust revisionism, the Washington Post reported.
Others also claimed that Walker showed her anti-Semitism before her comments about Icke’s writings.
Icke for decades has said “reptilian humanoids,” a slur used to refer to Jews, are running the world. He has also said “elite” Jews helped kill other Jews during the Holocaust.
“I strongly believe that a small Jewish clique which has contempt for the mass of Jewish people worked with non-Jews to create the First World War, the Russian Revolution, and the Second World War,” Icke wrote, adding that the Nazi extermination was “coldly calculated by the ‘Jewish’ elite.”
