(Headline USA) Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., defended the anti-Israel campus protests that have taken place at several elite universities this week, arguing “history will be on the side” of the radical protesters.
The “Squad” congresswoman’s own daughter was arrested at a Columbia University protest this week and later suspended from Barnard College, one of the university’s four undergraduate schools.
“I want people to actually understand why these kids are risking their academics and their ability to stay in good standing at their universities,” Omar told MSNBC.
“They are worried what it means to grow up in a world where people can watch 35—nearly 35,000 people be killed, to watch nearly 70% of them be children and women, to watch the destruction of 80% of infrastructure, to see a country withhold water, food, electricity, to starve people and carry out collective punishment.”
Many of the protesters are, in fact, suspected to be part of paid activist groups that are being funded through billionaire oligarchs or Arab nations with ties to terrorist organizations like Hamas.
Omar went on to applaud the protesters for refusing to be “complacent” while their “parents’ money” goes to “supporting a genocide they oppose.”
She claimed that supporters of the Oct. 7 massacre that killed some 1,200 Israelis would ultimately be vindicated.
“I do believe that history is going to be on their side, and these members who think this is a political opportunity to turn the world against these people who are standing for a morally just, right cause are going to be looked at and mocked in history,” Omar said.
The Democrat specifically took aim at House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who visited Columbia’s campus to denounce the anti-Semitic rhetoric and behavior taking place at the protests.
“It is not surprising that he would go out to Columbia University and stir up really more anger and hate and endanger the lives of young people who are at the encampment at Columbia University,” Omar claimed.
Johnson was met with boos and jeers by the protesting students during his press conference on campus.
He and several other Republicans have called for swift action from Columbia officials.
“We just can’t allow this kind of hatred and anti-Semitism to flourish on our campuses, and it must be stopped in its tracks,” Johnson said Wednesday.
“Those who are perpetrating this violence should be arrested,” he continued. “I am here today joining my colleagues, and calling on President [Nemat] Shafik to resign if she cannot immediately bring order to this chaos.”
