(Jewish Insider) The White House on Thursday distanced itself from the Council on American-Islamic Relations after the leader of the Muslim advocacy organization gave a speech celebrating the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack in Israel.
“We condemn these shocking, antisemitic statements in the strongest terms,” [the] White House’s deputy press secretary Andrew Bates told Jewish Insider. “Every leader has a responsibility to call out antisemitism wherever it rears its ugly head.”
Bates’ comments come after a JI report documenting a November speech delivered by Nihad Awad, co-founder and executive director of CAIR, in which he said of Oct. 7 that he “was happy to see people breaking the siege and throwing down the shackles of their own land and walk free into their land that they were not allowed to walk in.”
