MSNBC’s Medhi Hasan was blasted for turning to U.S. congresswoman Ilhan Omar as a commentator on Jew-hatred when she herself has promoted antisemitic conspiracy theories, pushed the dual loyalty canard, and incited animosity towards Jews in the U.S. and Israel.
Omar was tapped by MSNBC to respond to comments made by former President Donald Trump’s that American Jews need to “get their act together” before “it is too late,” and his claims that “no President has done more for Israel than I have.”
It remains unclear why Hasan, who has a history of misrepresenting Israel to demonize the Jewish state, would feature Omar as some sort of authority on antisemitism or hate speech.
Omar’s history of antisemitic rhetoric includes tweeting, “Israel has hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel.”
In 2018, she claimed that U.S. support for Israel was “all about the Benjamins,” alluding to the image of Benjamin Franklin on $100 bills. She has also insinuated that her Jewish Democratic colleagues on Capitol Hill have dual loyalties and falsely accused Israel of a number of heinous crimes.
Based on her record, Omar earned the “Antisemite of the Year” award in 2019 from the StopAntisemism.org NGO.
“The NGO announced that Omar would be awarded the title of biggest antisemite of the year…including a video listing her achievements in the field of Jew-hatred, accompanied sarcastically by congratulatory music and confetti,” reported the Jerusalem Post at the time.
Despite her troubling record, Hasan picked Omar to discuss antisemitism on his show.
For his part, Mehdi “tweeted a libelous claim” in 2021 about an “Israel Defense Forces sniper injuring a Palestinian boy,” reported JNS.org at the time, based on an expose by media watchdog group CAMERA.
“Hasan retweeted a post by Palestinian activist Issa Amro that included a nine-second video of a Palestinian boy in a vegetable store in Hebron. The youngster runs off-camera by the end of the clip, while another man in the video ducks for cover,” reported JNS. “The video does not show violence or a shooter, and it’s unclear from the footage how the Palestinian boy was injured.”
“After being contacted by CAMERA, Hasan published a tweet on Tuesday noting ‘conflicting accounts’ surrounding the incident and provided a link to a Times of Israel article with more information,” added the JNS report.
CAMERA followed up on that incident, reporting, “Apparently emboldened by MSNBC’s failure to broadcast a clarification debunking the grotesque falsehood that Israel is burning down Palestinian villages, a libel which Mehdi Hasan allowed to pass without challenge Feb. 5 on ‘All In With Chris Hayes,’ the MSNBC host again promotes egregious, unverified anti-Israel smears.”
