Rep. Lee Zeldin criticized Rep. Ilhan Omar for supporting a movement he said was linked to Hamas after she introduced a resolution supporting the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement.

"My colleague who just spoke used the frequent use of the words 'honestly' and 'honest.' Let's just get to a lot of what is left out," the 39-year-old New York Republican said Wednesday, referring to Omar, who had just given a speech during a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing supporting a resolution promoting the BDS movement. "The BDS movment has not distanced itself from Hamas, a designated foreign terrorist organization. BDS supporters individually are not distancing themselves from Hamas either."





The Jewish representative then went on to explain that a senior Hamas official has called for the death of all Jews last week.

Zeldin continued to criticize the resolution after the hearing in a statement: "[T]here are Members of this House who continue to prop up the BDS movement and blame Israel for all of its challenges. Israel is our best ally in the Middle East; a beacon of hope, freedom and liberty surrounded by existential threats. Shame on Rep. Omar for bringing her hateful twist of this reality today to the committee and this chamber.”

Omar introduced a resolution Tuesday in support of groups wanting to boycott Israel while comparing them to the American Jews who boycotted Nazi Germany.

"Americans of conscience have a proud history of participating in boycotts to advocate for human rights abroad, including ... boycotting Nazi Germany from March 1933 to October 1941 in response to the dehumanization of the Jewish people in the lead-up to the Holocaust," the Minnesota Democrat's resolution stated.

In the hearing, Omar also compared the boycotts of Israel to the Boston Tea Party.





Zeldin's comments came after a senior Hamas official called for the death of all Jews worldwide last week.

“Our patience has run out. We are on the verge of exploding. If this siege is not undone, we will explode in the face of our enemies, with God’s permission and glory. The explosion is not only going to be in Gaza but also in the [West] Bank and abroad, if God wills,” Fathi Hammad said Friday. “But our brothers [in the diaspora] are still preparing. They are trying to prepare. They are warming up. A long time has passed with them warming up. All of you 7 million Palestinians abroad, enough of the warming up. You have Jews everywhere and we must attack every Jew on the globe by way of slaughter and killing, if God permits. Enough of the warming up.”



Watch: Senior Hamas leader Fathi Hammad says Hamas has built a new factory for making suicide vests that will be given to Palestinian girls (and boys) in order to storm the Israeli border and blow up Israeli families.



Now you know why we protect the border with Gaza from Hamas. pic.twitter.com/MWFSfT5r8z — Ofir Gendelman (@ofirgendelman) July 14, 2019



UPDATE:

Zeldin told the Washington Examiner in a statement that he rejected Rep. Ilhan Omar's comparison of the BDS movement to the Boston Tea Party and the opposition to Nazi Germany.

“We have witnessed the rise of anti-Semitism and anti-Israel hate throughout the world, in our nation, on college campuses and within the halls of Congress, and whether this bigotry is brazen or it's blatant anti-Semitism deceptively called ‘legitimate' we must crush it wherever it exists. Unfortunately, there are Members of this House who have emboldened this rhetoric and continued to prop up the BDS movement whose founder, in referring to Zionism, said 'I, for one, support euthanasia.' I'd strongly caution my colleagues that there is no moral equivalency at all to be drawn between the BDS movement attacking Israel and opposition to the Nazis or the Boston Tea Party."