Bill Maher Boycott Urged By Rep. Rashida Tlaib For His HBO Slam On Her Israel Boycott

Bruce Haring

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Fresh off being barred from Israel and then turning down a humanitarian visit to the West Bank, Rep. Rashida Tlaib has now called for a boycott of HBO’s Bill Maher, who has termed her Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions efforts a “bullshit purity test.”

Tlaib tweeted that she was tired of folks like Maher “discrediting a form of speech that is centered on equality and freedom.”

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She added: “This is exactly how they tried to discredit & stop the boycott to stand up against the apartheid in S. Africa. It didn’t work then and it won’t now.”

The call against Maher continues a volatile stretch for the Michigan Democrat, a member of The Squad of freshmen whose radical agenda has seemed to move their party to the far left.

Last week, Israel barred Tlaib and Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar from entering their country because of their support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. The banishment was supported by President Trump.

Tlaib then asked Israel to allow her to see her 90-year-old grandmother in the West Bank. Her request was granted, but she rejected it because it was conditional on her not speaking out on the BDS movement while visiting.

Maher entered the fray on Friday during his Real Time show, calling the BDS movement a “bullshit purity test by people who want to appear woke, but actually slept through history class.”

“It’s predicated on this notion, I think — it’s very shallow thinking — that the Jews in Israel, mostly white, and the Palestinians are browner, so they must be innocent and correct, and the Jews must be wrong,” he said. “As if the occupation came right out of the blue, that this completely peaceful people found themselves occupied.”

Maher added that he understood why Tlaib and Omar were banned, given their past statements.

“Congresswoman Omar has said things like, ‘It’s all about the Benjamins,’ ‘Israel has hypnotized the world,’ ‘May Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel,’ ” Maher said. “She apologized for it, but it’s out there: Jews control the world, control the money.”

 

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