New Delhi: The Republican-led US House on Thursday voted to oust Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar from the Foreign Affairs Committee for her anti-Israel comments. Democratic leaders viewed it as "revenge" for booting far-right GOP lawmakers over incendiary remarks in the last session.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy solidified Republicans to take action against the Somali-born Muslim leader in the new Congress, news agency AP reported. As per the report, some GOP lawmakers did express reservations about the same. Removal of lawmakers from the US House committees is believed to be unprecedented until the Democratic side ousted hard-right Republicans Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Paul Gosar of Arizona two years ago.
“My voice will get louder and stronger, and my leadership will be celebrated around the world, as it has been,” Omar said in a closing speech, as quoted by AP.
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Ilhan Omar's Comments On Israel
Ilhan Omar is one of the first two Muslim women elected to the US Congress. She is also the first to wear a hijab in the US House chamber after floor rules were changed to let members wear head coverings for religious reasons.
After joining the US Congress in 2019, she sparked a row with tweets that suggested America's lawmakers who supported Israel were motivated by money.
In the first, she criticised the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC. “It’s all about the Benjamins baby,” she wrote, employing a slang about $100 bills.
When asked on Twitter who she thought was paying members of the US Congress to support Israel, she responded, “AIPAC!”
In a May 2021 tweet, she referred to Israel as “an apartheid state” over its treatment of Palestinians.
Omar’s comments sparked a public rebuke from then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats who made it clear that she had overstepped.
She later apologised, tweeting: “We have to always be willing to step back and think through criticism, just as I expect people to hear me when others attack me about my identity.“This is why I unequivocally apologize.”
“It’s About Political Revenge”: Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries
The vote of 218-211 outcome was along party lines and took place after a heated debate wherein Democrats accused the GOP of going after Omar based on her race.
Omar defended herself on the House floor and remarked if anyone was surprised that she was being targeted.
According to the AP report, House Republicans focused on six statements she has made that “under the totality of the circumstances, disqualify her from serving on the Committee of Foreign Affairs,” Mississippi's Michael Guest, the incoming chairman of the House Ethics Committee, said.
“All members, both Republicans and Democrats alike who seek to serve on Foreign Affairs, should be held to the highest standard of conduct due to the international sensitivity and national security concerns under the jurisdiction of this committee,” Guest added, as quoted by AP.
Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York supported Omar saying that at times she “made mistakes” and used antisemitic tropes that were condemned by House Democrats four years ago. But that’s not what Thursday’s vote was about, he emphasised.
“It’s about political revenge,” Jeffries said, as per the report.
Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, called the GOP’s action part of one of the “disgusting legacies after 9/11, the targeting and racism against Muslim-Americans throughout the United States of America. And this is an extension of that legacy.”
“This is about targeting women of color,” she added.
Meanwhile, Kevin McCarthy dismissed the allegation that the Republican decision to expel Omar was a tit-for-tat, though he had warned in late 2021 that if Republicans won back the US House majority, such a response might be expected.
“This is nothing like the last Congress,” he said, noting that Omar can remain on other panels, just not Foreign Affairs, because of her anti-Israel comments.