Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., defended herself and fellow freshman Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., after the recent backlash to Tlaib’s comments about the Holocaust and the Palestinians’ response to Jewish people moving to the region.
“I tell my sister, Rashida Tlaib, that her and I have the strength to endure any of the mischaracterization or efforts to distort and vilify and mischaracterize our message. I think we are seeing what happens when people really see these kind of attacks for what they are. It is designed to silence, sideline, and sort of almost eliminate public voice of Muslims from the public discourse,” Omar said Tuesday on MSNBC.
“I’m excited we have an opportunity to build alliances and push back and fight this attempt to marginalize our community’s voice,” she said.
A firestorm of criticism arose after Tlaib’s interview with Yahoo News’ “Skullduggery” podcast released last week, where she said Palestinians helped Jews after the Holocaust at their own expense.
“There’s always kind of a calming feeling I tell folks when I think of the Holocaust, and the tragedy of the Holocaust, and the fact that it was my ancestors, Palestinians, who lost their land and some lost their lives, their livelihood, their human dignity, their existence in many ways, have been wiped out, and some people’s passports,” Tlaib said.
“And just all of it was in the name of trying to create a safe haven for Jews, post-the Holocaust, post-the tragedy and the horrific persecution of Jews across the world at that time. And I love the fact that it was my ancestors that provided that, right, in many ways. But they did it in a way that took their human dignity away and it was forced on them,” she said.
