Nadler Slams Tlaib, Omar For Sharing Art From Cartoonist Accused Of Antisemitism

Jerry Nadler Image by Getty Images

By Josefin Dolsten August 26, 2019

NEW YORK (JTA) — Rep. Jerry Nadler criticized fellow Democrats Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib for sharing a cartoon that shows President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu covering their mouths.

Omar, D-Minn., and Tlaib, D-Mich., were criticized for sharing it last week because the cartoonist Carlos Latuff participated in an anti-Semitic Holocaust cartoon competition sponsored by an Iranian newspaper in 2006.

Nadler, the House Judiciary Committee chairman from New York, grouped Omar and Tlaib’s move to share the cartoon alongside Trump’s recent comments about Jewish disloyalty.

The growing anti-Semitism in our political dialogue is repugnant. @realdonaldtrump’s comments about disloyalty are a vicious and dangerous anti-Semitic trope. And the Carlos Latuff cartoon forwarded by @RepRashida and @Ilhan can surely be read for its vile underlying message.

— (((Rep. Nadler))) (@RepJerryNadler) August 22, 2019

The president said on Tuesday that Jews who vote for Democrats show “either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty.”

In the cartoon Tlaib and Omar shared, both men are wearing blue suits and in between their outstretched arms is a Star of David. Taken as a whole, that pattern resembles the Israeli flag.

Oof. Looks like both Rep. Omar and Rep. Tlaib shared this awful Carlos Latuff cartoon in Instagram stories yesterday. In 2006, Latuff came in second in Iran’s International Holocaust Cartoon Contest, which is a thing that exists, in case you thought the TL couldn’t get any worse. pic.twitter.com/uwyBPAsz7T

— Batya Ungar-Sargon (@bungarsargon) August 18, 2019

The congresswomen shared the cartoon after Israel announced it had banned them from entering the country on a planned visit due to their public support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement targeting the Jewish state.

Under Israeli law, BDS supporters can be prevented from entering the country.

Josefin Dolsten is a New York-based writer who has reported for the Forward, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, The Times of Israel and other Jewish publications. She currently works as an account director at Fenton Communications, supporting organizations that work to advance racial justice, LGBTQ+ equality, reproductive rights and more. Dolsten earned her B.A. in government from Cornell University and her M.A. in comparative religion and Jewish studies from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

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