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Inside the Anti-Israel Congressional Black Caucus Event That Whitewashed Hamas, Rejected Zionism

US Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) raises her fist as US Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) addresses a pro-Hamas demonstration in Washington, DC. Photo: Reuters/Allison Bailey

An anti-Israel panel event held during a conference hosted by the US Congressional Black Caucus in Washington, DC on Thursday urged the audience to show “solidarity” with the Palestinian cause while rejecting Zionism and justifying the Hamas terror group’s atrocities against the Israeli people.

The event, titled “Nobody’s Free Until Everybody’s Free: The Struggle for Black & Palestinian Liberation,” discussed the necessity of black and Palestinian Americans joining forces to dismantle the Jewish state. The panelists — US Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), US Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO), George state Rep. Ruwa Romman, progressive journalist Mehdi Hasan, and left-wing academic Marc Lamont Hill — attempted to draw parallels between the historical discrimination faced by African Americans with the alleged mistreatment of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.

Speaking in front of a standing-room-only crowd, Bush lamented the looming one-year anniversary of the so-called “genocide” and “ethnic cleansing”  in Gaza, the Palestinian enclave ruled by Hamas. She argued that the “violence and turmoil” the Palestinian population has endured at the hands of Israel has “continued for decades.” Notably, Bush made no mention of Hamas’s Oct. 7 slaughter of roughly 1,200 people and kidnapping of some 250 hostages in southern Israel which kickstarted the ongoing war in Gaza.

Hasan, a prominent critic of Israel, told the crowd that “”here are no words” that would adequately describe the Palestinian plight in Gaza. 

“The best writers in the world cannot do justice to what we have seen with our own eyes over the last year,” Hasan said. “It is difficult to sit in the United States of America knowing as we speak, right now, that people are being killed in Gaza. Children are having limbs amputated in Gaza. Women are having C-sections without anesthetic in Gaza. People are being literally starved to death in 2024 by a US-armed and enabled and funded military in Gaza.”

Hasan, who was billed as the moderator of the panel, added that he was “tired” of the debate over the war in Gaza being minimized to an “Arab American” issue. He pointed out that a coalition of over 1,000 black pastors from Georgia penned an open letter to US President Joe Biden to demand a ceasefire.

“This is an issue that affects black people, brown people, young people, progressives, anyone with a heart,” Hasan said. 

Romman reflected on her ascendance into the Georgia House of Representatives, claiming that her identity as a “Palestinian American” was considered “offensive” to conservative lawmakers in her state. She also lamented the passing of House Bill 30, legislation which codified the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) definition of antisemitism.

Beyond classic antisemitic behavior associated with the likes of the medieval period and Nazi Germany, the IHRA definition includes denial of the Holocaust and newer forms of antisemitism targeting Israel such as demonizing the Jewish state, denying its right to exist, and holding it to standards not expected of any other democratic state.

Romman added that she felt “sustained” by a “beautiful multi-faith, muli-racial, multi-generational coalition that at the capitol in Georgia came and said, ‘You’re not doing this in our name.’” The lawmaker seemingly referred to Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), a controversial anti-Zionist activist organization that has voiced support for Hamas terrorism against Jews and Israelis. JVP protested against the passage of HB 30 in January, stating that it is “not about protecting Jews from antisemitism, but to weaponize the definition to prevent free speech.”

“The only way that we move forward is together, and no matter how long it takes for national-level people to get it through their heads, we cannot win in a country that continues to see the rising tide of white supremacy, without centering the people who have faced it head on,” Romman said. 

Tlaib, the only Palestinian American woman in Congress, compared her family’s experience traversing through checkpoints in the West Bank with the segregation and dehumanization that black Americans endured in the past. Over time, the lawmaker saw the “connectivity” between the black American and Palestinian experiences, she said, also sharing that her legislative work on issues regarding water in the Michigan House of Representatives inspired her to connect domestic issues to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“Cutting off water is violent,” Tlaib said. “From Detroit to Gaza, water is a human right.”

Hasan praised Bush for “sacrificing her career for the biggest moral cause.” Bush then received a roughly 30-second standing ovation from the audience. 

Bush lost her reelection campaign to St. Louis attorney Wesley Bell in August while making her opposition to Israel a key talking point of the race. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) flooded the race with a staggering $8.4 million to secure her ouster.

Wiping tears from her eyes on Thursday, Bush said that she ran for office to “save lives and do the work of those who have been directly, negatively impacted by policy violence.” Reflecting on her experience leading the 2014 Ferguson protests after the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown in Missouri, Bush expressed gratitude to “our Palestinian brothers and sisters” for “putting themselves on the line for [black people.]”

Bush claimed that witnessing a white woman intervene in a violent confrontation between a police officer and a black youth inspired her to join the Palestinian cause. She added that during the Ferguson protests, a black 16-year-old chanted “F—k the police” to a law enforcement officer, angering and provoking an attack from the officer. 

“He just kept saying it, and this police officer just got so mad, just at the words, he didn’t touch anyone,” Bush said. “He didn’t touch him, and the police officer picked up his baton and was coming up to crack him over the head.”

“There was this white woman. She reached up in the air, and she caught the baton in the air,” Bush continued. “And she just held it, and the police officer was looking like ‘what just happened?’”

Bush said that the police officer walked away from the confrontation. 

“And I just remember in that moment thinking, ‘This is what we have to be!’”

Bush has a long history of telling highly dubious stories. She previously told the press, for example, that teachers at her private school sprayed whipped cream on her homework and accused her of cheating on the entrance exam because they did not believe she could score the highest out of any applicant. The lawmaker wrote on her campaign website that her son was born with translucent skin and his ears inside his head. Bush also originally claimed that she caught a falling woman during the Ferguson protests, but then amended the story to claim she caught a falling baby from a car window. She also claimed to have chased down an armed man on foot to prevent him from murdering his family and committing suicide. 

“If we save one life in Gaza, if we save one family in Gaza, it was worth it, and I wouldn’t change it. I wouldn’t take it back,” Bush stated, seemingly describing herself as a martyr for losing re-election this year while attacking Israel.

Bush’s conduct in the immediate aftermath of Hamas’s’ atrocities on Oct. 7 drew widespread outrage. Only nine days after the massacre, Bush called for an “immediate ceasefire” between Israel and the Palestinian terrorist group. As the war dragged on, her rhetoric toward Israel sharpened, with the congresswoman accusing the Jewish state of committing “genocide” in Gaza and “apartheid” in the West Bank. Bush has also accused Israel of inflicting a “famine” in Gaza without providing evidence.

Hill, an academic and anchor on Al Jazeera — a media outlet funded by the Qatari government, which hosts several top Hamas leaders — said that he has “paid a price” to publicly advocate against Israel. He stated that there is a “long history” of African Americans siding with the Palestinian cause, noticing parallels with their own experience in the United States. The left-wing pundit stated that radical black activists such as Malcolm X and the Black Panther Party all supported the anti-Zionist movement. 

“They try to tell you that [Martin Luther King Jr.] was a Zionist. King wasn’t no Zionist. What King said was that he believed that Israel had a right to exist, but not to exist as an ethno-nationalist apartheid state,” Hill said. 

Arguing that anti-Zionist activists are part of a long tradition of “freedom fighters” and “liberators,” Hill implored the US federal government to revoke all economic and diplomatic assistance to Israel, including support at the United Nations Security Council. He also argued that defeating Zionism is a necessary stepping stone on the path to ultimately dismantling capitalism.

“Stop it! Tell the truth! Stand up for freedom!” he said. “Do the work of liberation! Until Palestine is free, until Sudan is free, until Congo is free, until Haiti is free, not one single one of us free! Free Palestine, from the river to the Motherf—king sea!” Hill said, triumphantly pumping a balled fist in the air. 

From the River to the Sea, Palestine shall be free” — a popular slogan among anti-Israel activists — has been widely interpreted as a call for the destruction of the Jewish state, which is located between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.

The Algemeiner asked the panelists why there was no mention of Oct. 7 or Hamas when discussing the causes of the ongoing war in Gaza. The outlet also asked whether the panelists believe Hamas should surrender in exchange for the sake of preserving Palestinian life.

“I feel like we have this reflexive take in American media politics where we have to say, ‘What about Hamas?’” Hill said in response in a mocking tone, adding that invoking the terrorist group is “unnecessary” and “excessive.”

“Hamas hasn’t surrendered because they’re still under brutal occupation. Hamas hasn’t surrendered because Israel has never given the Palestinian people one minute, one moment of self-determination, freedom, or liberation,” Hill said. 

“And so, when you talk about Hamas, when you talk about Oct. 7, you [should] also talk about Oct. 6. Because, history didn’t start on Oct. 7,” he continued.

Hill went on to say that although it is against his “moral code” to maim, rape, and slaughter thousands innocent civilians or abduct hundreds of innocent bystanders, as Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists did on Oct. 7, he believes that it is not his “job to tell people how to liberate themselves.”

“The question presumes, and it is undergirded by a kind of orientalist, white supremacist idea that Palestinians are these unyielding, barbaric, uncivilized, premodern people that are incapable of negotiation.”

The academic then defended Hamas as a “democratically-elected organization that has been systematically undermined.” He urged the audience not to talk about Hamas “like they’re some irrational crazy people,” arguing that the Islamist group’s actions are motivated by a “backdrop of Israeli settler-states that sexually abuse people, that steal land, that kill people.”

“Let’s have a real conversation about Hamas, not the neoliberal, dishonest, orientalist conversation about Hamas,” Hill concluded. 

Hill has a long history of peddling anti-Israel narratives and calling for explicit violence against the Jewish state. In 2018, Hill was fired from his position as a CNN contributor for calling for “free Palestine from the river to the sea,” a phrase which according to critics implies a genocide or mass expulsion of Jews from Israel. He has also voiced support for the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement (BDS), an initiative which seeks to isolate Israel from the international community as the first step toward its eventual destruction. The pundit additionally praised antisemitic Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan — a hate preacher who has referred to Jews as “termites” and called Nazi leader Adolph Hitler “a very great man.” In 2019, Hill skewered mainstream media outlets as “Zionist” organizations, a nod to the antisemitic conspiracy theory notion that Jews control the media. The progressive activist also pushed an unsubstantiated claim that Israel is “poisoning” Palestinian drinking water.

Following the panel, The Algemeiner was pulled aside by a pair of individuals connected to the event and grilled about the publication’s position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and whether it supported “black solidarity with the Palestinian community.”

The post Inside the Anti-Israel Congressional Black Caucus Event That Whitewashed Hamas, Rejected Zionism first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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China Expands Influence Campaign Targeting Israel as Way to Hurt US, Study Finds

Chinese and US flags flutter outside the building of an American company in Beijing, China, April 8, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Tingshu Wang

China has increasingly used state media and covert campaigns to spread anti-Israel and antisemitic narratives in the United States, according to a new study.

The Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), an Israeli think tank, has released a report examining how China’s state media portrays Israel and the United States as solely responsible for the war in Gaza, depicting them as destabilizing actors while spreading anti-Israel and antisemitic messages.

“It is evident that China and its proxies play a significant role in the current wave of antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment in the United States,” Ofir Dayan, a research associate in the Israel-China Policy Center at INSS, writes in the report.

According to Dayan, China’s dissemination of anti-Israel narratives is not intended to directly harm Israel but rather to undermine the US, while preserving its valuable diplomatic and economic ties with Jerusalem.

“Israel is used as a tool to advance Beijing’s claim that Washington destabilizes both the international system and the regions where it operates,” the report says.

While China’s primary aim is to target the United States, Israel ends up suffering “collateral damage” as a result, the study finds.

In advancing these objectives, INSS explains that China covertly conducts influence campaigns across the United States, promoting anti-Israel and antisemitic narratives, including conspiracy theories about “Jewish control” of politics, the economy, and the media.

On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused China, along with Qatar, of orchestrating a campaign in Western media to “besiege” Israel by undermining its allies’ support.

There is “an effort to besiege — not isolate as much as besiege Israel — that is orchestrated by the same forces that supported Iran,” Netanyahu said, speaking to a delegation of 250 US state legislators at the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem.

“One is China. And the other is Qatar. They are organizing an attack on Israel … [through] the social media of the Western world and the United States,” the Israeli leader continued. “We will have to counter it, and we will counter it with our own methods.”

According to the INSS report, China’s role in promoting anti-Israel activity in the United States is evident in the narratives it spreads — both publicly, through state-run media, and covertly, through targeted cyber operations.

For example, China Daily — the official news outlet of the Chinese Communist Party — has been openly critical of Israel since the start of the Gaza war, using its coverage to attack Washington and depict it as a destabilizing force fueling conflict worldwide.

The Chinese news outlet has also published articles contending that neither Israel nor the United States care about Gazans or Israeli hostages held by Hamas, accusing the US of instigating wars for domestic political gain, and attempting to create divisions in American society by portraying support for Israel as unpopular.

The study also explains how China exploited the wave of protests across US universities following the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, to deepen divisions within American society.

It portrayed anti-Israel protesters as calm and peaceful defenders of free expression, while depicting pro-Israel demonstrators as violent.

“Posts on heavily censored social media in China were even more blatant, and at times antisemitic, claiming that Israel controls the United States and drawing comparisons between Israel and Nazi Germany,” the report says.

“Some referred to Israel as a ‘terrorist organization,’ while describing Hamas as a resistance organization and spreading unfounded conspiracy theories,” it continues.

In the past, the US State Department has accused China of promoting conspiracy theories and antisemitism within the United States.

China also carries out covert influence campaigns through targeted cyber operations, aimed in part at shaping Israel’s image in the United States and undermining US-Israel relations.

According to the study, China-linked cyber campaigns have used troll networks to spread malicious content about Israel, disseminating antisemitic messages to American audiences that falsely claim Jewish and Israeli control over US politics.

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US Lawmakers Slam Zohran Mamdani Over Pledge to Scrap IHRA Definition of Antisemitism

Candidate Zohran Mamdani speaks during a Democratic New York City mayoral primary debate, June 4, 2025, in New York, US. Photo: Yuki Iwamura/Pool via REUTERS

Two members of the US Congress on Wednesday slammed New York City Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani after he pledged to abandon a widely used definition of antisemitism if elected.

Reps. Mike Lawler, a Republican from New York, and Josh Gottheimer, a Democrat from New Jersey, said in a joint statement that Mamdani’s plan to scrap the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism is “dangerous” and “shameful.” The IHRA definition — adopted by dozens of US states, dozens of countries, and hundreds of governing institutions, including the European Union and United Nations — has been a cornerstone of global efforts to monitor and combat antisemitic hate.

“Walking away from IHRA is not just reckless — it undermines the fight against antisemitism at a time when hate crimes are spiking,” Lawler said in his own statement. Gottheimer echoed that concern, arguing that dismantling the definition “sends exactly the wrong message to Jewish communities who feel under siege.”

The backlash followed Mamdani’s comments last week to Bloomberg News in which he vowed, if elected, to reverse New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ executive order in June adopting the IHRA standard. Mamdani, a democratic socialist and state assemblymember, argued that the IHRA definition blurs the line between antisemitism and political criticism of Israel and risks chilling free speech.

“I am someone who has supported and support BDS [the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement against Israel] and nonviolent approaches to address Israeli state violence,” he said at the time.

The BDS movement seeks to isolate Israel from the international community as a step toward its eventual elimination. Leaders of the movement have repeatedly stated their goal is to destroy the world’s only Jewish state.

“Let’s be extremely clear: the BDS movement is antisemitic. Efforts to delegitimize Israel’s right to exist are antisemitic. And refusing to outright condemn the violent call to ‘globalize the intifada’ — offering only that you’d discourage its use — is indefensible,” Lawler and Gottheimer said in their joint statement, referring to Mamdani’s recent partial backtracking after his initial defense of the use of the phrase “globalize the intifada.”

“There are no two sides about the meaning of this slogan — it is hate speech, plain and simple,” the lawmakers continued. “Given the sharp spike in antisemitic violence, families across the Tri-State area should be alarmed. Leaders cannot equivocate when it comes to standing against antisemitism and the incitement of violence against Jews.”

IHRA — an intergovernmental organization comprising dozens of countries including the US and Israel — adopted the “working definition” of antisemitism in 2016. Since then, the definition has been widely accepted by Jewish groups and lawmakers across the political spectrum.

According to the definition, antisemitism “is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.” It provides 11 specific, contemporary examples of antisemitism in public life, the media, schools, the workplace, and in the religious sphere. Beyond classic antisemitic behavior associated with the likes of the medieval period and Nazi Germany, the examples include denial of the Holocaust and newer forms of antisemitism targeting Israel such as demonizing the Jewish state, denying its right to exist, and holding it to standards not expected of any other democratic state.

In a statement, the Mamdani campaign confirmed that the candidate would not use the IHRA definition of antisemitism, which major civil rights groups have said is essential for fighting an epidemic of anti-Jewish hatred sweeping across the US.

“A Mamdani administration will approach antisemitism in line with the Biden administration’s National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism — a strategy that emphasizes education, community engagement, and accountability to reverse the normalization of antisemitism and promote open dialogue,” Mamdani spokesperson Dora Pekec told the New York Post.

Lawler and Gottheimer’s pushback comes as Congress debates the Antisemitism Awareness Act, legislation that would codify IHRA’s definition into federal law. Advocacy groups such as the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) have urged lawmakers to back the measure, warning that antisemitic incidents have surged nationwide over the past two years and having a clear definition will better enable law enforcement and others to combat it.

For Mamdani, the controversy over the IHRA definition adds a new flashpoint to a mayoral campaign already drawing national attention. 

A little-known politician before this year’s Democratic primary campaign, Mamdani is an outspoken supporter of the BDS movement. He has also repeatedly refused to recognize Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state, falsely suggesting the country does not offer “equal rights” for all its citizens, and promised to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he visits New York.

Mamdani especially came under fire during the summer when he initially defended the phrase “globalize the intifada”— which references previous periods of sustained Palestinian terrorism against Jews and Israels and has been widely interpreted as a call to expand political violence — by invoking the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising during World War II. However, Mamdani has since backpedaled on his support for the phrase, saying that he would discourage his supporters from using the slogan.

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Jewish Leaders in UK, Canada, Australia Urge Governments to Reconsider Palestinian State Recognition

Women hold up flags during a a pro-Palestinian rally in Hyde Park, Sydney, Australia, Oct. 15, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Lewis Jackson

Jewish umbrella organizations in the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia have jointly expressed “grave concerns” over their governments’ plans to recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly next week.

In a joint statement, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, the Board of Deputies of British Jews, and the Canadian Center for Israel and Jewish Affairs urged their governments to reconsider their intention to recognize a “State of Palestine.”

This month, several Western countries — including France — are expected to recognize a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly, marking their latest effort to increase international pressure on Israel over the war in Gaza.

However, Jewish communities in these countries have strongly opposed the move, urging their governments to concentrate diplomatic efforts on securing the release of all remaining Israeli hostages held by Hamas and dismantling the Palestinian terrorist group’s military and political power.

They also emphasized the need to ensure humanitarian aid reaches civilians in Gaza without being diverted for terrorist operations and that all parties comply with international law.

“We are gravely concerned that our governments’ announced intentions to recognize a Palestinian state at the UN this month are seen by Hamas as a reward for its violence and rejectionism towards Israel, and these announcements have therefore lessened rather than maximized pressure for the hostages’ release and for Hamas to disarm,” the joint statement read.

“Extremists have answered [Hamas’s] call for escalations in global violence by carrying out brutal assaults on Jews — citizens of each of our countries,”” it continued. “For the sake of a better future for Israelis, Palestinians, and the wider Middle East, it is an imperative to avoid serving this agenda.”

Supporters of the recognition argue that this move would actually undermine Hamas’s control, noting that the terrorist group has never supported a two-state solution to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and would likely oppose a Palestinian state since it would have no governing role.

However, Hamas has praised such plans to recognize a Palestinian state as “the fruits of Oct. 7,” citing the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, as the reason for increasing Western support.

“The fruits of Oct. 7 are what caused the entire world to open its eyes to the Palestinian issue,” senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad said in a recent interview with Al Jazeera.

Israeli officials and opponents of such recognition argue that Hamad’s remarks show these countries are, essentially, rewarding acts of terrorism.

US President Donald Trump has strongly opposed the move, warning that it would hinder Gaza ceasefire negotiations and empower Hamas instead of advancing peace.

During a bilateral meeting on Thursday amid Trump’s state visit to the UK, he was asked about Britain’s plans to recognize a Palestinian state.

“I have a disagreement with the prime minister on that score, one of our few disagreements, actually,” Trump said, referring to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

For his part, Starmer said he and Trump were aligned on the shared goal of achieving peace in the region.

“We absolutely agree on the need for peace and a road map, because the situation in Gaza is intolerable,” the British leader said.

In their joint statement, Jewish communities in the UK, Canada, and Australia argued that their governments’ plans to recognize a Palestinian state without making Hamas’s disarmament and the release of hostages a precondition would set back, rather than advance, prospects for a genuine two-state peace.

“Our governments are in effect saying that the fulfilment of these requirements post-recognition will be taken on trust and left for some unspecified time in the future,” the statement read. “This is a posture that lacks credibility, borders on recklessness, and sets up Palestinian statehood for failure from the outset.”

“Let it never be forgotten that Hamas and other terrorist groups in Gaza initiated this war [and] they remain openly committed to the genocidal goal of destroying Israel as a state and expelling or eradicating its Jewish population,” it continued.

Western powers have been negotiating with the Palestinian Authority (PA) on conditions for Gaza governance after Hamas is removed from power, while the PA continues to pledge reforms — a strategy experts say is unlikely to succeed given its lack of credibility and ongoing support for terrorism against Israel.

Jewish leaders have argued that these governments appear to be accepting the PA’s promises of reform at face value, rather than waiting to see if its behavior truly changes.

The PA, which has long been riddled with accusations of corruption, has maintained for years a so-called “pay-for-slay” program, which rewards terrorists and their families for carrying out attacks against Israelis.

Under the policy, the Palestinian Authority Martyr’s Fund makes official payments to Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, the families of “martyrs”” killed in attacks on Israelis, and injured Palestinian terrorists. Reports estimate that approximately 8 percent of the PA’s budget is allocated to paying stipends to convicted terrorists and their families.

PA President Mahmoud Abbas had announced plans to reform this system earlier this year, but the PA has continued to issue payments.

The PA has also avoided holding elections for nearly 20 years, largely due to Abbas’s limited support among Palestinians.

According to a poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR), if an agreement is reached to end the war in Gaza, only 40 percent of Palestinians “support the return of the PA to managing the affairs of the Gaza Strip,” while 56 percent oppose it.

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