The Simon Wiesenthal Center plans to unveil its list of the world's top 10 anti-Semites during a news conference Tuesday morning. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) will be named alongside the Hamas terrorist group and its patron, the Iranian government, The Algemeiner reported Monday afternoon.
The three share one overarching goal – the elimination of Israel.
Iranian regime officials have said it for years. Hamas put it in its anti-Semitic charter. And top CAIR officials repeatedly have said they do not believe the Jewish state has a right to exist. CAIR co-founder and Executive Director Nihad Awad called Tel Aviv "occupied" in a speech last month, praying that, "inshallah [God willing], it will be free later."
CAIR officials also repeatedly equated Israel's military, the IDF, to ISIS terrorists, vilified "Israel [and] its supporters" as the "enemies of God and humanity," and pushed anti-Semitic conspiracies linking programs which take American police leaders to Israel lead to "deadly police shootings" of Black people in America.
Recent remarks by CAIR's San Francisco chapter director Zahra Billoo cemented CAIR's place on the Wiesenthal Center list, The Algemeiner reported. Billoo told an American Muslims for Palestine conference that "polite Zionists," which she defined as everything from the Anti-Defamation League to campus Hillels and "Zionist synagogues," are "enemies" who "we need to pay attention to."
CAIR defended Billoo, who announced last week that she was taking a sabbatical, in the wake of resulting criticism of her comments. CAIR said it was proud of "the courage she demonstrates in her civil rights work" and condemned what it called an "online smear campaign against our sister and colleague, Zahra Billoo."
CAIR claims to be a civil rights group, Associate Dean Rabbi Abraham Cooper told The Algemeiner, but a statement "made by a top official at CAIR is openly anti-Semitic and the support given to her by CAIR helps mainstream Jew-hatred in the US."
"Billoo is but one of venomous professional Israel and Jew-haters who use non-existent dots to create phony links between Israel and US social crises," the Wiesenthal Center told The Algemeiner. "They always wrap their bigotry in the mantle of social justice. The goal is demonizing the Jewish state and silencing Israel's supporters on campus and Capitol Hill."
Among its missions, the Wiesenthal Center "confronts anti-Semitism, hate and terrorism, promotes human rights and dignity, stands with Israel, defends the safety of Jews worldwide, and teaches the lessons of the Holocaust for future generations."
The Wiesenthal Center designation comes as CAIR has tried to smear the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) as an "anti-Muslim hate group," a phrase repeatedly parroted by mainstream news outlets including the Washington Post and Columbus Dispatch. CAIR also tries to smear IPT Executive Director Steven Emerson with an anti-Semitic "dual loyalty" accusation, falsely claiming he "collaborated with Israeli intelligence."
In a statement given to news outlets, the IPT said that "Neither Mr. Emerson nor the IPT has ever worked at the direction of any government, foreign or domestic; and has never received any funding from any government, foreign or domestic. Nor have Emerson or IPT ever coordinated any activities whatsoever with any foreign government; any such allegations are false and defamatory."
The IPT has reported on CAIR's documented roots in a Muslim Brotherhood-run Hamas support network, and its chronic record of anti-Semitic rhetoric, for years.
Other reports indicate that the Wiesenthal Center anti-Semitism list will include the BBC, after the network falsely reported that a Nov. 29 attack on a bus full of Jewish teens celebrating Hanukah was triggered by anti-Muslim chants.
Social media outlets Twitter and Tiktok, and also Unilever – the parent company of Ben & Jerry's ice cream – also will be listed, a Wiesenthal release touting the announcement said.
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