‘Blood libel’: ADL slams Ilhan Omar for labeling Jewish students ‘pro-genocide’ or ‘anti-genocide’

The CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, Jonathan Greenblatt, accused Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) of “blood libel” after she labeled Jewish students as being either “pro-genocide” or “anti-genocide.”

Greenblatt shared a clip on X this weekend, which showed Omar being asked about the antisemitism Jewish students face in the wake of the anti-Israel protests popping up on campuses across the country. The congresswoman responded that Jewish students should be protected “whether they are pro-genocide or anti-genocide.”

“It is patently false and a blood libel to suggest that ANY Jewish students are ‘pro-genocide,’” Greenblatt wrote. “It is gaslighting to impute that Jewish people are somehow at fault for being harassed and menaced with signs and slogans literally calling for their own extermination.”

Omar’s comments came as she was approached by a reporter while walking through Columbia University’s campus. 

“So I actually met a lot of Jewish students that are in the encampments,” she said. “And I think it is really unfortunate that people don’t care about the fact that all Jewish kids should be kept safe and that we should not have to tolerate antisemitism or bigotry for all Jewish students whether they are pro-genocide or anti-genocide.”

The Washington Examiner reached out to Omar for comment on Greenblatt’s accusation.

Omar’s remarks were met with fierce backlash. Rep. Carlos Giménez (R-FL) called them “hateful rhetoric.”

“Antisemitism and hate has no place anywhere — especially not on college campuses,” Giménez told the Washington Examiner. “Unsurprisingly, Rep. Ilhan Omar’s latest hateful rhetoric is entirely unbecoming of a Member of Congress — it’s why I voted to remove her from the Foreign Affairs Committee.”

“Congress will continue to investigate and hold these institutions of higher learning accountable for failing to guarantee the safety and wellbeing of all students, and in particular, Jewish students who are facing an over 400% increase in anti-Semitic attacks in America since Hamas’ murderous, genocidal terrorist attacks against the democratic, Jewish State of Israel,” he added.

Other congressmen were not so critical of Omar, who has been a controversial figure on Capitol Hill for past comments as well. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) was asked if he was “comfortable” with Omar labeling some Jewish students as pro-Genocide on CNN’s State of the Union.

“I think the essential point that Ilhan made is that we do not want to see antisemitism in this country, and I think the word ‘genocide’ is something that is being determined by the International Court of Justice,” the progressive senator said.

Sanders added that he has “no doubt” that “what Netanyahu is doing” in Israel’s war against Hamas is “ethnic cleansing” and that he opposes the U.S. funding “Netanyahu’s war machine.” He called Israel’s conduct in Gaza “outrageous.”

Eyal Yakoby is a Jewish student leader at the University of Pennsylvania. He previously spoke at a House GOP leadership press conference ahead of the December House testimony on campus antisemitism, where he detailed what he described as a “serious” antisemitism problem at his school.

Yakoby accused Omar of going to the Columbia hearing on antisemitism “with the sole goal of trivializing what Jewish students are facing. The hearing was supported across the aisle, and yet she came only to undermine and subvert antisemitism.”

“Rather than her focusing on delineating between the proverbial good Jews and bad Jews, she should instead be actually effecting positive change for this country,” he added.

The Washington Examiner reached out to Jewish Voices for Peace, a Jewish-led organization that calls for a ceasefire in Gaza and divestment from Israel, for comment on Omar’s remarks and the backlash she has faced.

Roz Rothstein, co-founder and CEO of StandWithUs, a pro-Israel education organization that fights antisemitism, told the Washington Examiner that Omar’s comments “shamefully promote ill will and misinformation” against Jewish and Zionist students, and noted that Hamas “openly calls for genocide in their charter.”

She said that because Jewish students “largely feel connected to Israel,” and with various chants on campus openly supporting “the genocide of Jews or violence against them… It would therefore be appropriate that Ilhan Omar condemns the violent rhetoric instead of going after the Jewish students who already feel threatened on those campuses.”

Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has lasted over six months. Israeli hostages remain in Hamas’s hands, and thousands of Palestinians have been killed, in addition to the approximately 1,200 Israelis that were killed on Oct. 7.

A 2021 poll found that 65% of students in the leading American Jewish fraternity and sorority felt unsafe on campus. Following the Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel and the pro-Palestinian campus demonstrations that have followed, a recent poll found that 73% of Jewish students feel less safe than before. This poll came just months after the ADL report of a nearly 400% uptick in antisemitic incidents, which Giménez mentioned.

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Greenblatt called on Omar to apologize to pro-Israel Jewish students in his post on X, adding that her comments are “how people get killed.”

Yaboky, the student leader, pointed to Omar apologizing in the past for “antisemitic tropes,” with him adding, “Myself and millions of Jews await her next apology.”