Ilhan Omar, who once called Israel an “apartheid regime,” but who more recently came out against the boycott Israel movement, handily won the Democratic nomination in a Minneapolis-area congressional District.
Omar, a Somali-born community activist and representative in the State House, is favored to win in November in the 5th District now held by Keith Ellison, who won the DFL primary for state attorney general. DFL is the state’s Democratic Party.
There were primaries Tuesday in four states: Minnesota, Wisconsin, Connecticut and Vermont.
Omar’s tweets about Israel have earned her notoriety in the pro-Israel community. In 2012, she said that Israel had “hypnotized the world” to ignore its “evil doings.” Defending that tweet earlier this year, she said on the same platform that calling attention to the “Israeli Apartheid regime” was not anti-Semitic.
Speaking last week at a candidates’ forum at the Beth El synagogue she affirmed her belief in Israel’s right to exist and she said she opposed the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement targeting Israel.
“It is going to be important for us to recognize Israel’s place in the Middle East and the Jewish people’s rightful place within that region,” she said, according to a report by a local news site, TC Jewfolk.












