Ilhan Omar says she supports BDS, after telling Jewish audience it isn’t effective

Ilhan Omar, the newly elected US congresswoman from Minnesota, says after being elected that she supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement targeting Israel, after saying during her campaign that it was “counteractive” and prevents dialogue.

Omar’s comment come in response to a website called Muslim Girl, which pressed her on her appearance during the campaign at a Minneapolis area synagogue. During that candidates’ forum, she had said that BDS “stops the dialogue” and is “counteractive” to achieving a two-state outcome.

Like many other Democrats, she noted her opposition to anti-BDS legislation but framed it as a free-speech issue.

“Ilhan believes in and supports the BDS movement, and has fought to make sure people’s right to support it isn’t criminalized,” her campaign told Muslim Girl after the election. “She does, however, have reservations on the effectiveness of the movement in accomplishing a lasting solution.”

TC Jewfolk, the local Jewish news website which originally reported her ostensible rejection of BDS, presses her on the issue, asking Omar why she didn’t simply answer “yes or no” when asked about the issue at the synagogue forum for candidates.

“It was a bigger issue and she didn’t ask for a ‘yes or no’ answer,” Omar replies, referring to the person who posed the question. Omar says her position during the campaign was not “politically expedient.”

Omar is the first Somali and one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress. The other Muslim woman elected last week, Rashida Tlaib of the Detroit area, also backs BDS.

— JTA