Skip to main content

Omar-Tlaib Israel Trip Planned by Anti-Semitic Group With History of 'Blood Libels, Nazi Screeds, Celebration of Terrorists'

Share This article

JERUSALEM, Israel – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made waves last week when he announced that Israel would not allow US congresswomen Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) to enter Israel due to their promotion of the anti-Israel Boycotts, Divestments, and Sanctions (BDS) Movement.

Netanyahu also noted that the organization sponsoring their trip is called MIFTAH, an anti-Israel Palestinian group founded by a PLO member named Hanan Ashrawi. This organization that Tlaib and Omar partnered with is known for its support of terrorism and blatant anti-Semitism.

Anti-Semitic Conspiracy Theories

In 2013, the organization published an article in Arabic claiming that Jews murder Christian children and use their blood in religious ceremonies – a historic anti-Semitic conspiracy theory known as "blood libel."

Although the original article has since been taken down, a copy obtained by NGO Monitor reveals that a member of the organization criticized President Barack Obama for celebrating the Jewish Passover holiday. 

"Does Obama in fact know the relationship, for example, between "Passover" and "Christian blood" ..?! Or "Passover" and "Jewish blood rituals..?!" wrote Nawaf al-Zaru, a MIFTAH staff writer.

"Much of the chatter and gossip about historical Jewish blood rituals in Europe are real and not fake as they claim; the Jews used the blood of Christians in the Jewish Passover," he continued.

When pro-Israel organizations condemned the organization's publication of the anti-Semitic article, MIFTAH accused them of launching a "smear campaign" before later retracting their statements and taking the piece down. 

In 2016, MIFTAH also peddled the anti-Semitic conspiracy theory that Jews control the media after posting a neo-Nazi article called "Who Rules America The Alien Grip on Our News and Entertainment Media Must Be Broken."

The author of the article is listed as the "Research Staff of National Vanguard Books." National Vanguard is an American Neo-Nazi organization founded in 2005 in Charlottesville, Virginia. 

Terror Sympathies

Several MIFTAH contributors, members, and even Ashrawi herself have glorified or dismissed Palestinian terrorists who committed deadly terror attacks.

In 2011, a contributor named Joharah Baker wrote an article for MIFTAH called "Let Us Honor Our Own" in which Baker describes Dalal Al Mughrabi as one of the Palestinians' "national heroes."

Mughrabi hijacked an Israeli bus in 1978, resulting in the deaths of 38 Israelis, including 13 children.

In a 2017 interview with Deutsche Welle, Ashrawi herself said that Palestinians who murder Israelis are not terrorists, but "are seen by the people as resistance."

Seth Mandel, the Executive Editor of the Washington Examiner Magazine, took to Twitter to ask why the mainstream media is not focusing on the anti-Semitic views of the organization Omar and Tlaib wanted to work with.

"One reason you won't see coverage of the org funding Tlaib and Omar's trip is that it'll undermine the narrative that this is about 'criticism of Israeli policy.' And it'll show the true face of BDS — blood libels, Nazi screeds, celebration of terrorists."

Tlaib and Omar have yet to distance themselves from anti-Semites in the fallout of their canceled trip.

Over the weekend, the pair reposted a cartoon drawn by Carlos Latuff depicting President Trump and Netanyahu silencing Omar and Tlaib.

The Jewish Daily Forward's Batya Ungar-Sargon, noticed the cartoon and wrote on Twitter: "Oof. Looks like both Rep. Omar and Rep. Tlaib shared this awful Carlos Latuff cartoon in Instagram stories yesterday. In 2006, Latuff came in second in Iran's International Holocaust Cartoon Contest, which is a thing that exists, in case you thought [this timeline of events] couldn't get any worse."

The Free Beacon reports that Latuff has also used images of the Holocaust victims to blame Israel for Palestinian suffering. One cartoon depicts a Holocaust victim and Palestinian hanging on an electric fence while making the shape of a swastika.

Share This article

About The Author

Emily
Jones

Emily Jones is a multi-media journalist for CBN News in Jerusalem. Before she moved to the Middle East in 2019, she spent years regularly traveling to the region to study the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, meet with government officials, and raise awareness about Christian persecution. During her college years, Emily served as president of Regent University's Christians United for Israel chapter and spoke alongside world leaders at numerous conferences and events. She is an active member of the Philos Project, an organization that seeks to promote positive Christian engagement with the Middle