By Daniel Lippman, POLITICO
Amid a brewing political firestorm sparked by the Israel-Hamas war, Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.) accused pro-Israel group AIPAC of “textbook racism” and being “an existential threat to the Black community” in private Facebook posts last month.
Lee is a critic of the current Israeli government whom AIPAC targeted in last year’s elections and is planning to target next year, as well. Soon after Israel launched retaliatory strikes following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, she became one of the first lawmakers to urge a ceasefire, prompting criticism from some of her Facebook followers — one of whom told her that AIPAC was not supporting her for “blatant anti-Israel positions.”
Responding to a comment, she wrote: “I understand that faces don’t always matter to you and the Black community’s needs definitely don’t matter to you … but what AIPAC does to me is textbook anti blackness.”
In another post, she said: “AIPAC is not supporting those Black candidates to be supportive of their community’s needs if the only issue it cares about is their own. That’s textbook racism actually.”
In mid-November, she posted a status update on her personal Facebook, sharing an article that said AIPAC was going after her and other members of the Squad, commenting: “Since no one else will say it, I will: AIPAC is an existential threat to the Black community and its right to self [determination].”
AIPAC spokesperson Marshall Wittmann called Lee’s statements “slanderous” and a “transparent attempt to hide her strident anti-Israel record.” He noted that AIPAC has strongly supported candidates of all races — including, in 2022, a majority of the Congressional Black and Hispanic caucuses.
“I stand by my assertion,” Lee told Huddle in a statement that called AIPAC “an existential threat to all of democracy.”
“Any Republican-funded Super PAC that endorsed over 100 January 6-supporting Republicans who voted to overturn our election and shared a goal with a mob of armed white supremacists while spending $5 million in attack ads darkening my face and labeling me as a Trump/[Marjorie Taylor Greene] supporter in order to keep Black folks from showing up to vote … is racist,” she added.