Jamaal Bowman Held Fundraiser with Hamas-Sympathizing Muslim Leader Disavowed by White House
Jamaal Bowman speaks at a watch party for his Democratic primary results in Yonkers, N.Y., June 23, 2020.
House “squad” member Jamaal Bowman (D., N.Y.) held a fundraiser with a Hamas-sympathizing Muslim leader who was disavowed by the White House after he celebrated the brutal October 7 attack on Israel.
This past week, Nihad Awad, co-founder and national executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, co-hosted the event for Bowman at a private home in Fairfax, Va., the New York Post first reported.
“Dear Friends in Northern Virginia, Maryland, and DC Area,” Awad’s tweet advertising the event read. “This evening at 7pm we have a fundraiser for Congresman Jamal Bowman, a staunch defender of Palestinian rights and also the target of AIPAC and its affiliates.”
At the 16th Annual Convention for Palestine in Chicago on November 24, Awad championed the October 7 massacre as a powerful show of resistance by the Palestinian people, according to video footage circulated by the Middle East Media Research Institute.
“The people of Gaza only decided to break the siege — the walls of the concentration camp — on Oct. 7,” Awad said. “And yes, I was happy to see people breaking the siege and throwing down the shackles of their own land and walk free into their land that they were not allowed to walk in.”
“And yes, the people of Gaza have the right to self-defense — have the right to defend themselves. And yes, Israel as an occupying power does not have that right to self-defense,” he added.
After Awads remarks prompted backlash, the White House cancelled its collaboration with CAIR, Awad’s organization, to counteract religious-based hatred in the U.S.
“We condemn these shocking, antisemitic statements in the strongest terms,” White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates told the Post. “The horrific, brutal terrorist attacks committed by Hamas on October 7th were, as President Biden said, ‘abhorrent’ and represent ‘unadulterated evil…The atrocities of that day shock the conscience, which is why we can never forget the pain Hamas has caused for so many innocent people.”
The White House then removed CAIR as one of the solidarity groups it had enlisted to combat antisemitism in the U.S.
A vocal critic of Israel, Bowman this week slammed the police for intervening in the Columbia protests that led to activists capturing a building, breaking windows and barricading themselves in. The president of the university said the students brought the unrest to an untenable point, requiring police to eject protesters.
“I am outraged by the level of police presence called upon nonviolent student protestors on Columbia and CCNY’s campuses,” Bowman tweeted. “As an educator who has first hand experience with the over-policing of our schools, this is personal to me.”
Bowman blasted the “militarization of college campuses, extensive police presence, and arrest of hundreds of students” and accused of the administration of “dangerous escalation.”
Bowman and his progressive colleagues in Congress are staunch opponents of Israel and U.S. military support for the Jewish state in its ongoing military campaign to destroy Hamas. Resurfaced footage from November appeared to show Bowman questioning the mass sexual violence perpetrated by Hamas terrorists against Israeli women, calling it “propaganda,” Politico first reported. Bowman back-tracked on his comments after the video came to light.
House lawmakers censured Bowman last year for falsely pulling a fire alarm inside of a congressional office building to delay a House spending vote. He was charged with a misdemeanor in October for pulling the fire alarm but denied doing so with intent to obstruct a congressional proceeding. He pleaded guilty to the charge and paid a $1,000 fine.
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