Leading Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives are attacking a resolution by Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and co-sponsored by Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., endorsing the right to boycott Israel. One angry veteran Democrat colleague already declares the proposal is “dead on arrival.”
Omar proposed the resolution last week in pushing back against U.S. laws banning Israeli boycotts, Fox News reports. Omar and Lewis want to endorse the right of Americans to create boycotts against foreign countries and the Muslim congresswoman is very specific:
“We are introducing a resolution … to really speak about the American values that support and believe in our ability to exercise our First Amendment rights in regard to boycotting. … “It is an opportunity for us to explain why it is we support a nonviolent movement, which is the BDS movement.”
Omar is referring to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement she supports along with Lewis. Quick to react, however, was Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., who told The Jerusalem Post on Friday that “I can’t imagine that any committee is going to mark up or take seriously any pro-BDS resolution.” He continued: “Am I worried about the overall BDS movement worldwide as an economic matter? No,” he said. “As an effort to delegitimize Israel, of course.
“The comments here today are a tiny part of that delegitimizing effort,” Sherman told The Washington Times. And in that same article Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., calls the BDS movement a “horror” and a “cancer.” House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Ca., has also criticized BDS proponents in the past.
