WASHINGTON – With the three highest ranking Democratic state officials in Virginia facing calls for resignation for racism or sexual assault, a candidate for House of Delegates in this month’s election is apologizing for anti-Semitic social-media posts made five years ago.
Ibraheem Samirah, the Democrat nominee in Virginia’s 86th district Feb. 19 election issued a statement Friday night for virulently anti-Israel and anti-Semitic posts that were published Thursday by Big League Politics. Samirah, a Muslim-American born to Palestinian refugees, said that giving money to Israel is worse than giving money to the Ku Klux Klan and wished for the late Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon to “burn in hell,” in addition to other hateful screeds.
Samirah called the charges part of a “slander campaign,” blaming his statements on the work of his “impassioned college days.”
He is running for office against a Republican U.S. Air Force veteran, Gregg Nelson, in the special election.
The revelations about Samirah’s anti-Semitism come while an embattled Virginia Democrat Party struggles to maintain control of power.
Gov. Ralph Northam is fighting to hold on to his position amid calls for resignation by Democrats and Republicans for posing in black face next to a KKK image in his yearbook, while Attorney General Mark Herring admitted posing in black face and Lt. Gov. Justice Fairfax faces charges of sexual assault.
All four scandals were first reported by Big League Politics.
Samirah has agitated for the anti-Israel Boycott, Divest and Sanction movement, which he worked for as the co-founder of American University’s Jewish Voice for Peace chapter. Following Sharon’s death, Samirah called for him to “burn in Hell” before deleting the Facebook message.
“Ariel Sharon, burn. Burn a million times for every innocent soul you killed. Hell is excited to have you,” Samirah wrote.
