Far Right Slams Palestinian March Organizer Linda Sarsour as Anti-Semite

Image by Getty Images

By Daniel J. Solomon January 24, 2017

Linda Sarsour, a Muslim civil rights activist, is facing charges of anti-Semitism after she helped organize the Women’s March on Washington.

“The anti-Semite who organized the ‘Women’s March on Washington,’” screamed a headline from David Horowitz’s Front Page Magazine.

The piece cited her opposition to Zionism, connection to family members who are supposedly imprisoned in Israel and endorsement of the BDS movement. Horowitz has been cited by the Southern Poverty Law Center as an Islamophobic extremist.

Other far-right blogs pointed to social media posts in which Sarsour, the head of the Arab American Association of New York, wrote favorably about Sharia (Islamic) law. In one message on Twitter, she praised Saudi Arabia’s family leave policies, writing, “10 weeks of PAID maternity leave in Saudi Arabia. Yes PAID. And ur worrying about women driving. Puts us to shame.”

Sarsour responded to the accusations on Facebook: “The opposition cannot fathom to see a Palestinian Muslim American woman that resonates with the masses.”

Whatever her feelings about Israel, Sarsour has spearheaded outreach efforts to New York’s Jewish community, praising Jews for backing Bernie Sanders and a push for Muslim holidays in public schools.

_Contact Daniel J. Solomon at [email protected] or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon_

Daniel J. Solomon is the former Assistant to the Editor/News Writer at the Forward. Originally from Queens, he attended Harvard as an undergraduate, where he wrote his senior thesis on French-Jewish intellectual history. He is excited to have returned to New York after his time in Massachusetts. Daniel’s passions include folk music, cycling, and pointed argument.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO