Ilhan Omar, Bernie Sanders Come Out in Support of Rashida Tlaib Amid Trump’s Attacks

Many progressives and activists like congresswoman Ilhan Omar, Shaun King, etc., came forward in defense of congresswoman Rashida Tlaib after she was attacked by the United States President Donald Trump for her comments on Holocaust.

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Tlaib, in an interview on Yahoo News’s “Skullduggery” podcast Saturday said her ancestors, Palestinians, had to suffer to create a safe haven for the Jewish people.

“There’s, you know, there’s a kind of a calming feeling, I always 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, had been wiped out. . . . I mean, 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.”

She added that “it was forced on them. And so, when I think about one-state, I think about the fact that, why couldn’t we do it in a better way?”

After her remarks, Republicans and right-wing GOP supporters started attacking Tlaib by misinterpreting her comments and taking them out of context. 

Rep. Liz Cheney demanded action against Tlaib. She called on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer in a statement “to finally take action against Representative Tlaib and other members of the Democratic caucus who are spreading vile anti-Semitism.”

The U.S. President also joined the hate wagon Monday saying, “Democrat Rep. Tlaib is being slammed for her horrible and highly insensitive statement on the Holocaust. She obviously has tremendous hatred of Israel and the Jewish people. Can you imagine what would happen if I ever said what she said, and says?”

After Trump’s tweet, fellow congresswoman Ilhan Omar came forward defending her, saying that Trump himself praised Neo-Nazis and he is dividing communities by smearing a Muslim woman.

Leading presidential candidate Bernie Sanders also came out in defense of Tlaib saying that Trump must apologize for his discourse. "Mr. President: Stop dividing the American people up by their religion, their race or their country of origin--and stop your ugly attacks against Muslim women in Congress. You are taking Rep. @RashidaTlaib's comments out of context and should apologize," Sanders said on Twitter. 

Shaun King, a Black rights activist said that Trump is fabricating Tlaib’s statement as she never said that the Holocaust gave her peace.​​​​​​​

Tlaib was also defended by journalist Mehdi Hassan who linked an article with his tweet saying that Trump has said horrible things about the Jewish people.​​​​​​​

Ilhan Omar and Tlaib are the two first-ever Muslim women to be elected into U.S. Congress and have been receiving attacks from both sides of the political aisle, as well from President Trump himself on different occasions, as they challenge status-quo on U.S. policies relating to Black people, Muslims and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict which has traditionally tended to be one-sided in favor of Israel.