The Harris-Walz campaign’s recently appointed head of Arab-American outreach suggested more than two decades ago that pro-Israel forces were “controlling” US politics, repeating a well-known antisemitic figure of speech.
“The Zionists have a strong voice in American politics,” Brenda Abdelall, then a student at the University of Michigan, told the New York Sun in June 2002. “I would say they’re controlling a lot of it.”
Abdelall’s comments, first reported by the Washington Free Beacon, were given to the Sun at the American Muslim Council’s annual convention after a speaker, Wake Forest University professor emeritus Jamil Fayez, railed that “Zionists are destroying America.”
“‘Destroying’ is a harsh word,” Abdelall conceded at the time before suggesting that Jews were manipulating American government, a trope more recently expressed by far-left lawmakers like Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.).
In the same interview, Abdelall cited the primary defeat of Rep. Earl Hilliard Sr. (D-Ala.) as an example of her point. Hilliard had been criticized for voting against a House resolution condemning suicide bombings in Israel by Palestinian terrorists.
Abdelall’s mother, Mona, was also quoted by the Sun as saying President George W. Bush was “blindly supporting” then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s response to the Second Intifada.
Another attendee at the 2002 American Muslim Council convention was then-Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.), who has repeatedly alleged that “Zionists” were responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and that Bush had advance knowledge of the atrocity.
The Harris campaign announced Wednesday that Abdelall, now a lawyer who previously worked as assistant secretary of partnership and engagement in the Department of Homeland Security, would help with efforts to mobilize Arab-American voters ahead of the Nov. 5 election.
“Those 2002 comments do not reflect Brenda’s views or the views of the campaign,” a Harris-Walz spokesperson told The Post.
“In her role at DHS, Brenda worked closely on the implementation of the country’s first National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism,” the person added. “She also led efforts for the first United We Stand summit, a White House event to counter hate-fueled violence, like we tragically saw with the mass shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue.“
Abdelall’s appointment comes as tensions simmer among Democrats over the Israel-Hamas war. Hundreds of thousands of voters — many in the battleground state of Michigan — marked themselves as some version of “uncommitted” during the 2024 Democratic primary to protest President Biden’s refusal to call for a cease-fire in the conflict.
Harris has been forced into a delicate balancing act on the Middle East conflict, wary of provoking either faction of her base.
“I will always stand up for Israel’s right to defend itself and I will always ensure Israel has the ability to defend itself,” she told delegates at last week’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago. “Because the people of Israel must never again face the horror that the terrorist organization Hamas caused on October 7th.
“At the same time, what has happened in Gaza over the past 10 months is devastating,” she went on. “President Biden and I are working to end this war such that Israel is secure, the hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity.”
Abdelall did not immediately respond to a request for comment.