Kamala Harris's newly appointed head of Arab-American outreach once accused Zionists of "controlling" American politics, echoing an anti-Semitic trope that suggests Jews nefariously manipulate global affairs.
"The Zionists have a strong voice in American politics," Brenda Abdelall, an Egyptian-American lawyer and former Department of Homeland Security official, said in a 2002 interview with the New York Sun while attending the American Muslim Council's annual convention. "I would say they're controlling a lot of it."
Abdelall, whom Harris tapped earlier this week to help galvanize Arab voters, made the remarks after a speaker at the event, anti-Israel professor Jamil Fayez, said that "Zionists are destroying America." Responding to his remarks, Abdelall said that while "'destroying' is a harsh word," supporters of the Jewish state do control American politics.
The American Muslim Council's 2002 confab also provided attendees with a chance to meet anti-Semitic former congresswoman Cynthia McKinney (D., Ga.), who famously blamed Jews for the 9/11 terror attack and attended a 2009 Holocaust-denial gathering in London. Her father similarly blamed Jews when she lost her congressional seat shortly after the 2002 conference. "Jews have bought everybody. Jews. J-E-W-S," he said.
Abdelall's appointment comes as Harris works to appease members of her party's liberal flank who want her to more aggressively confront the Jewish state and undermine its war on Hamas, including by cutting off arms sales. Harris has praised pro-Hamas campus protesters as "showing exactly what the human emotion should be, as a response to Gaza." In March, she accused Israel of stoking "humanitarian catastrophe."
Abdelall joins several other Harris campaign advisers who have a history of pressuring Israel and advocating increased relations with Iran. They include Harris's national security adviser, Phil Gordon, who is the subject of a congressional probe into his ties to a member of an Iranian government influence network. Ilan Goldenberg, Harris's liaison to the Jewish community, has faced scrutiny for his ties to the anti-Israel group J Street, as well as championing closer ties to Tehran.
Harris also appointed a veteran Israel critic, the Rev. Jen Butler, to conduct outreach to the faith community. Butler has come under fire for working alongside anti-Semitic activist Linda Sarsour.
Abdelall also is a veteran of the anti-Israel advocacy world.
During the 2002 American Muslim Council event, she suggested that the election defeat of former congressman Earl Hilliard Sr. (D., Ala.) "shows the Jewish influence in politics," according to the Sun. At the time, Hilliard had faced criticism from pro-Israel groups for voting against a congressional resolution condemning Palestinian suicide bombers.
Abdelall's mother founded the American Muslim Council's Ann Arbor branch, helping the anti-Israel advocacy group expand its presence across the country, according to the Sun.
The Harris campaign defended Adelall, saying that as a DHS official, she "worked closely on the implementation of the country's first National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism" and "led efforts for the first United We Stand summit, a White House event to counter hate-fueled violence."
"We are proud to add her to the campaign."
The American Muslim Council has long courted controversy for spreading anti-Israel propaganda.
In 2003, Rep. Jerry Nadler (D., N.Y.) blasted the group's former executive director, Eric Erfan Vickers, for claiming "that the recent tragic loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia and its entire crew was an act of divine retribution against Israel, and attributable to the presence of the first Israeli astronaut on the mission."
Vickers at the time said he saw "a sign in the calamitous destruction of the one hundred and thirteenth space shuttle mission taking place over a city named Palestine, while on board was the first Israeli astronaut." Nadler described the remarks as "unthinkable."
During the 2000 election cycle, then-GOP presidential nominee George W. Bush returned donations from an American Muslim Council board member who "was quoted in interviews as supporting the radical Islamic group Hamas," the New York Times reported. Former Democratic presidential contender Hillary Clinton, then a Senate candidate, also returned donations from the group, citing similar concerns.
Update 4:05 p.m.: This piece has been updated to reflect a comment from the Harris campaign.
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