Ilhan Omar calls Netanyahu an 'ethno-nationalist' leader

US Congresswoman Ilhan Omar rebuked Israeli government policies against Palestinians, calling Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu an "ethno-nationalist leader."

Speaking from the floor of the House of Representatives on Thursday, Omar invoked Nakba, the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians leading to the establishment of the state of Israel, to contextualise the current crisis.

"Now consider that 78 percent of their land was taken from them," she said of Palestinians after the founding of Israel. "Since then, 5.6 million Palestinians have been continually displaced from their homes in one of the largest among the lasting refugee crises in human history."

Today is Eid, one of the most joyous days in the Muslim calendar.

While I'd rather be spending it with my family, I have an obligation to stand up for the families whose children were taken from them because of the violence in Palestine.

My remarks on the House Floor tonight pic.twitter.com/MSnNpuZuit
— Rep. Ilhan Omar (@Ilhan) May 13, 2021

Omar said hope of a Palestinian state is slipping away because of Israel's policy of settlement expansion of displacing Palestinians.

She cited the recent Human Rights Report that concluded that Israel is guilty is practising apartheid against Palestinians.

"The Israeli government and their far-right, ethno-nationalist leader Benjamin Netanyahu has legally razed Palestinian ancestral homes, levelled entire neighbourhoods, and violently suppressed any resistance," Omar said.

"This is all to make way for illegal Israeli settlement outposts, designed to displace Palestinians from their homes and prevent a future Palestinian state."