Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05) said she “almost chuckles” when people refer to Israel as a Democracy in a recent tell-all interview with Yahoo News.
In the interview, Omar advocates for “having an equal approach” to dealing with Israel and Palestine.
“Most of the things that have always been aggravating to me is that we have had a policy that makes one superior to the other, and we mask it with a conversation about justice and a two-state solution when you have policies that clearly prioritize one over the other,” she said.
When challenged to elaborate on specific policies, Omar simply deferred to America’s “relationship really with the Israeli government and with the Israeli state.”
“So when when I see Israel institute law that recognizes it as a Jewish state and does not recognize the other religions that are living in it, we still uphold it as a democracy in the Middle East. I almost chuckle because I know that if we see that in any other society we would criticize it, we would call it out—we do that to Iran, we do that to any other place that sort of upholds its religion,” Omar continued, saying she’s “aggravated” by “those contradictions.”
Omar touched on a number of other topics in her wide-ranging interview with host Zainab Salbi, including the Green New Deal and student loan debt, which Omar believes should be canceled across the board.
“It’s fascinating, because we always only ask how do we pay for programs that are going to have a positive impact on normal people’s lives and not corporations,” she said. “It would pay for itself, actually, because we will have more young people who are buying homes, we are going to have more young people who are purchasing cars.”
Watch the full interview below:
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Anthony Gockowski is managing editor of Battleground State News and The Minnesota Sun. Follow Anthony on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Ilhan Omar” by Yahoo! News.
