NEWLY empowered Republicans in the US House of Representatives voted to oust Congresswoman Ilhan Omar from the chamber’s Foreign Affairs Committee, because of her past comments critical of Israel.
The measure was passed 218-211 on Thursday, removing the Somali-born legislator from the influential committee.
On Wednesday, the Republican majority in the House of Representatives voted 218-209 along party lines to move forward with a resolution to remove Omar from the committee. Democrats opposed the move, accusing Speaker Kevin McCarthy of bigotry for targeting Omar, who is a Somali-born Muslim lawmaker.
‘This is about vengeance. This is about spite. This is about politics,’ said James McGovern of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the Rules Committee, as Republicans called a hurried meeting late on Tuesday to consider the matter.
The resolution against Omar was proposed by Max Miller of Ohio, a former Trump administration official. It said: ‘Omar’s comments have brought dishonour to the House of Representatives,’ referring to the congresswoman’s criticism of Israel and US foreign policy.
‘Congresswoman Omar clearly cannot be an objective decision-maker on the Foreign Affairs Committee given her biases against Israel and against the Jewish people,’ Miller said in a statement.
Omar fired back in a tweet saying: ‘There is nothing objectively true in this resolution. It’s all perceived and filled with pretext.
‘Also, if not being objective is a reason to not serve on committees, no one would be on committees. We vote our districts.’
Congressional Progressive Caucus Chairperson Pramila Jayapal said in a statement on Monday, ‘You cannot remove a Member of Congress from a committee simply because you do not agree with their views. This is both ludicrous and dangerous.’
Omar called McCarthy’s effort to remove her from the committee against initial opposition from his own caucus ‘pathetic.’ In an interview with CNN, she said the move against her was ‘politically motivated’.
‘It’s motivated by the fact that many of these members don’t believe a Muslim, a refugee, an African should even be in Congress, let alone have the opportunity to serve on the Foreign Affairs Committee,’ she said.
The 37-year-old US citizen and lawmaker represents Minneapolis, Minnesota, a district with a large Somali population. She was one of the first two Muslim women in Congress, both elected in 2018, and was the first to wear a hijab on the House floor.
Texas Rep. Michael McCaul, the committee chairman, argued against Omar’s inclusion on the committee, saying her view of Israel was diametrically opposed to the committee’s and having her on the committee ‘creates dysfunction’.
Last month, Sarah Margon, President Joe Biden’s nominee for assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labour, withdrew her candidacy as she faced intense scrutiny from a Republican senator who refused to agree to her nomination due to her statements on Israel.
- Iran has condemned the Israeli regime’s destruction of Palestinian homes in the occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem under the pretext of construction without a permit.
In a post on his Twitter account on Thursday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kan’ani said it is a ‘bitter humour’ that the Palestinians as the owners of their land have to ask the occupiers for a construction permit.
‘What a bitter humour. The original owners of the land – Palestinians – have to ask the occupier for a construction permit! The occupier does not give it, because it considers it a disturbance to the development of Zionist settlements!! So they destroy!!! A view of Western Human Rights!’ he wrote.
On Wednesday, Israeli occupation forces razed two houses in Beit Jala and al-Walaja, northwest of Bethlehem, claiming that the properties were not licensed.
However, Beit Jala mayor, Issa Qassis, told the Palestinian Wafa news agency that the owner of one of the houses, which was under construction, had obtained an Israeli court order allowing him to continue work on his house.
Meanwhile, the head of al-Walaja village council, Khader Abu al-Tin, said many Palestinian-owned homes were either destroyed or notified of demolition in Ein Jweiza area for illegal settlement projects by the Tel Aviv regime.
Israel, he added, wants to empty the area of its Palestinian residents in order to use it for its illegal settlement enterprise.
The demolition of Palestinian homes across the occupied territories has increased since an extreme far-right administration led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took office.
Palestinians regard ministers of the new cabinet, especially Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, as racist and fascist for publicly advocating the expulsion of Palestinians and the demolition of their homes, supporting Israeli extremist groups repeatedly attacking Palestinians, and stirring incitement to racism against Arabs and non-Jews.
Israel routinely demolishes Palestinian houses in the occupied West Bank and East al-Quds. The pretence is that the homes were built without a permit.
However, the Israeli regime rarely, if ever, approves such permits for Palestinians. The Israeli forces also sometimes order Palestinian owners to demolish their own houses or pay the costs of the demolition.
- Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says the Russian army will push Ukrainian troops further away from Russian territory and create a safe buffer zone in response to Kiev’s procurement of longer-range rockets from the West.
In an interview on state television on Thursday, Lavrov said everybody sought an end to the current conflict in Ukraine but the West’s relentless support of Kiev was playing an important part in how Moscow approached the war.
‘We’re now seeking to push back Ukrainian army artillery to a distance that will not pose a threat to our territories. The greater the range of the weapons supplied to the Kiev regime, the more we will have to push them back from territories which are part of our country,’ Russia’s top diplomat said.
Lavrov’s comments came just two days after two unnamed US officials are reported as saying that Washington was preparing a new package of military aid worth $2.2 billion that is expected to include longer-range rockets for the first time.
Russia launched what it calls ‘a special military operation’ in Ukraine on February 24, 2022, over the perceived threat of the ex-Soviet republic joining NATO. Since then, the United States and Ukraine’s other allies have sent Kiev tens of billions of dollars’ worth of weapons, including rocket systems, drones, armoured vehicles, tanks, and communication systems.
Western countries have also imposed a slew of economic sanctions on Moscow.
The Kremlin has said that the sanctions and the Western military assistance will only prolong the war.
Washington and Berlin say they would arm Kiev with dozens of battle tanks.
Russia annexed the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia in September last year following referendums, vowing to protect them from any aggression by Ukrainian troops.
Crimea also declared independence from Ukraine on March 17, 2014 following a referendum and became part of the Russian Federation after it formally applied to become part of Russia.
Lavrov also said that the US had been directly involved in explosions that severely damaged Russia’s Nord Stream gas pipelines under the Baltic Sea last year. Previously, Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the United Kingdom of blowing up the pipelines, which London denied.
