Israeli Legal Firm Petitions Government to Ban Ilhan Omar from Entering Israel

JERUSALEM, Israel – The Israeli legal NGO Shurat HaDin filed a petition in a Jerusalem court this week seeking to block US Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) from being allowed entry into the Jewish state. 

The Times of Israel reports that Shurat HaDin asked the Jerusalem District Court to demand that Interior Minister Aryeh Deri deny Omar's entry during her visit to Israel with other members of Congress later this month.

Omar has been criticized for making repeated anti-Semitic statements and she openly supports the global Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against the State of Israel.

Last month, Omar introduced a bill attacking anti-BDS legislation. However, the US House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly last week to condemn the BDS movement against Israel.

Shurat HaDin's petition against Omar is based on a law Israel enacted in 2017 that allows the state to prohibit anyone who "knowingly issues a public call for boycotting Israel" from entering the country.

Despite this law, US Ambassador to Israel Ron Dermer said last month that "out of respect for the US Congress and the great alliance between Israel and America, we would not deny entry to any member of Congress into Israel."

Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, an attorney who founded Shurat HaDin, criticized Israel for not taking a harsher stand against those who promote BDS.

"Israel shouldn't let others, including young students, fight this battle for it, and in contrast surrender to the phenomenon here in Israel due to the prestige and status of certain important BDS activists," she told the Times of Israel.

Darshan-Leitner has represented hundreds of terror victims in cases against Iran, Syria, and North Korea as well as against terror organizations like Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah and the PLO. She has also sued international banks for helping terrorist organizations.