A Jewish South Florida city commissioner faces possible reprimand for calling Michigan’s Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib an anti-Semite who might “blow up Capitol Hill.”
The newly elected Congresswoman, a Palestinian-American, made history earlier this month when she was sworn in as one of the first two Muslim women to serve in Congress.
Hallandale Commissioner Annabelle Lima-Taub could face censure from fellow commissioners, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported on Wednesday.
Lima-Taub vowed Tuesday on Facebook not to apologize or resign, despite the firestorm she faces for her social media anti-Muslim rant about Tlaib.
She, however, deleted her inflammatory social media post on Monday after the newspaper began asking questions over her Facebook message.
“A Hamas-loving anti-Semite has NO place in government! She is a danger and [I] would not put it past her to become a martyr and blow up Capitol Hill,” the commissioner wrote, adding that she “proudly signed” an online petition seeking to remove Tlaib from office.
Lima-Taub’s statement came five days after Tlaib set off a national firestorm of her own when she said in a Jan. 3 speech—hours after being sworn into Congress—that impeaching President Donald Trump should be a top Democratic Party agenda and that she would “go in there and impeach the motherf***er.”
The commissioner’s comments were especially egregious considering Jewish Israelis’ ongoing and bloody conflict with Palestine’s Muslim population.
NewsOne contacted the U.S. Capitol Police, in light of an October NBC News report on the increase of social media threats directed at federal officials, to find out if the agency is investigating this case. The Capitol Police did not immediately respond.
Investigations into threats against federal lawmakers nearly doubled from 2016 to 2017, according to the Capitol Police. Threats are now coming in on a daily basis. They pursued 950 cases in just the first half of 2017.
As for consequences from her colleagues, it’s unclear how serious Lima-Taub’s fellow commissioners are about censure.
On Monday, the Sun-Sentinel said they criticized Lima-Taub’s lack of discretion but failed to demand an apology.
Commissioners Michele Lazarow and Mike Butler said their besieged colleague promoted a racist stereotype of Muslims. Lazarow called her words “indefensible and a black eye for Hallandale Beach.”
“There is no religious litmus test to hold public office in the United States and any politician who would spout this kind of vile anti-Muslim rhetoric is clearly not fit to govern,” Scott Simpson, a spokesman for the civil rights group Muslim Advocates, said, according to the Sun-Sentinel.
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