I could find this news only on right-wing and Israeli sites, and I’m not sure why other Western media didn’t report it. As I mentioned the other day, after the Women’s March dumped (euphemistically called “resignation”) three of its former leaders, Linda Sarsour, Tamika Mallory, and Bob Bland, they appointed a diverse but much less polarizing board of 15 women. The lone exception was Zahra Billoo, characterized as “a civil rights attorney and executive director of the San Francisco Bay area chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.” The CAIR affiliation is worrisome, but far more worrisome was Billoo’s history of unhinged anti-Semitic and anti-Israel tweets, which was the reason the Women’s March (WM) fractured in the first place—and surely why they let Sarsour et al. go (Sarsour is now campaigning for Bernie Sanders, so much the worse for The Bern).
Here is some of what Billoo tweeted several years ago, and you can bet your tuchas that her views haven’t changed (she says as much in her response below):
Israel commits war crimes and terrorism as a hobby.
— Zahra Billoo (@ZahraBilloo) April 12, 2015
ONE MORE TIME FOR THE PEOPLE IN THE BACK: Israel is an apartheid, racist state, which engages in terrorism against Palestinians.
— Zahra Billoo (@ZahraBilloo) July 9, 2018
This one is insane:
I'm more afraid of racist Zionists who support Apartheid Israel than of the mentally ill young people the #FBI recruits to join ISIS. #CVE
— Zahra Billoo (@ZahraBilloo) February 18, 2015
believes God is ever present, Zionism is racism, and Israel is a settler colonial nation engaged in ongoing apartheid.
— Zahra Billoo (@ZahraBilloo) May 11, 2018
The details of Billoo’s deep-sixing can be found, among other places, at the Jerusalem Post (but not at the New York Times or Washington Post). Click on the screenshot:
Billoo responded with a Twitter tantrum. As the Post notes:
Billoo announced that she was voted off the board in a 25-tweet-long thread. “Since this is going to be in your newsfeeds in the morning – here’s a thread about me being voted off the board of @WomensMarch
tonight,” she started the series of tweets.She described the reports about her as “an Islamophobic smear campaign led by the usual antagonists, who have long targeted me, my colleagues, and anyone else who dares speak out in support of Palestinian human rights and the right to self-determination.”
I won’t put up her entire defiant series of tweets (there are 25), except for three, one of which accuses the WM of letting her go because she was a Muslim woman of color:
Since this is going to be in your newsfeeds in the morning – here’s a thread about me being voted off the board of @WomensMarch tonight 1/
— Zahra Billoo (@ZahraBilloo) September 19, 2019
To see and experience its new leaders caving to right-wing pressure, and casting aside a woman of color, a Muslim woman, a long-time advocate within the organization, without the willingness to make any efforts to learn and grow, breaks my heart. 11/
— Zahra Billoo (@ZahraBilloo) September 19, 2019
Billoo’s Women’s March page is blank now.
Well, I’m heartened that the Women’s March is taking a stand for unity and against anti-Semitism, though I worry that it is too late. For the WM has fractured, with many branches having become independent of the original organization because of Sarsour et al.’s anti-Semitism and Mallory’s refusal to disassociate herself from hatemonger Louis Farrakhan.
I wish the organization well, and applaud them for being one of the more prominent groups to publicly act this way against the hatred of Jews.
Great! The Women’s March is back on-track to an inclusive future.
In other news, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and Ilhan Omar both refused invitations to speak at the current UK Labour conference. Of course, “other engagements” is the official and no doubt plausible reason, but OAC at least expressed concern at leader Jeremy Corbyn’s failure to deal with antisemitism.
Another invited speaker, Omar Boughouti, the founder of BDS wasn’t granted a visa to enter the UK due to his support for terrorism. Alas, other supporters of terror and terrorists, like Corbyn himself, are already in the UK.
https://www.politicshome.com/news/uk/political-parties/labour-party/news/106670/excl-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-turns-down-offer-be
Hilarious that a man invited to the Labour conference couldn’t get into the country because of his support for terrorism. And people say Corbyn isn’t an antisemite.
Did I say hilarious? I meant sad…
“I won’t put up her entire defiant series of tweets (there are 25), except for three, one of which accuses the WM of letting her go because she was a Muslim woman of color”
Shouldn’t it be because she was a Muslim of color (or just that she was Muslim)? I wouldn’t think the fact shes a woman would be part of the criteria for kicking off the Women’s March Board
Misogyny! It’s everywhere.
Good for them, but, as you said, it’s likely too late. I know tons of people who either went all the way to D.C. to march or supported the March from afar, but no longer do so because it took them literally years to even bother trying to address the antisemitism at the very top of its leadership, as well as the antisemitic incidents that took place (like the gay pride banner with a Star of David on it being banned in Chicago).
It actually took me months to convince these people of the antisemitism. I had to send them article after article for a long time before they accepted it. Same thing with Omar and Tlaib. Their question was always “why haven’t I heard about this?” When all you watch is MSNBC and all you read is HuffPo and The Times, you don’t hear about them. But you certainly would hear it from these outlets if it was a right-wing march or representatives.
“Billoo announced that she was voted off the board in a 25-tweet-long thread”
Well, she’s definitely not insane.