Ilhan Omar decries AIPAC attack ads as 'desperate and deeply offensive'

Representative Ilhan Omar, one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress, has slammed the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) lobby group for its recent fundraising campaign focused on attacking progressive members of Congress who have called for human rights conditions to be placed on US aid to Israel. 

"This is desperate and deeply offensive," Omar said of the AIPAC ads. 

"The rights of Palestinians and all people yearning for freedom and self-determination will not be ignored and no level of harassment will silence me or the millions of people demanding peace and justice," she continued.

Omar's post retweeted that of James Zogby, founder of the Arab American Institute in Washington, who had taken screenshots of the ads, which he called "an outrage". 

"These ads are Trump-like bigoted acts of incitement. AIPAC should be ashamed (if they even know the meaning of the word) & Democrats should let them know it & shun them," he said. 

Representative Mark Pocan, who has also been critical of Israel's actions, particularly during its current offensive in Gaza, said AIPAC was fanning "the flames of Islamophobia, rather than peace, with deceitful graphics and rhetoric like this".