Update, September 19, 2019: Following the Women's March vote to remove Billoo from their board, ADL issued the following statement:
"We welcome the decision by the Women’s March to remove Zahra Billoo from its board. Billoo’s hateful views have no place in any organization, much less one with an admirable and inclusive mission such as the Women's March."
New York, NY, September 17, 2019 ... ADL (the Anti-Defamation League) issued the following statement today concerning the new board of directors at the Women's March:
The Women’s March is a major progressive organization, and it recently announced a more inclusive and representative board of directors. Unfortunately, this includes an individual – Zahra Billoo – who has a long history of deeply offensive and anti-Semitic statements.
Billoo repeatedly and unapologetically has said that she views Zionism – the belief in Jewish nationhood – as racism. She has equated Israel to that of an apartheid regime, and clearly rejects the very idea of a Jewish state, calling for a Palestine “from the river to the sea.” She has lifted up statements that defend the terror organization Hamas’ intentional targeting of rockets to murder Israeli Jewish civilians, and has done so under the guise of someone working for peace. And in 2010, Billoo retweeted a highly offensive tweet that there is “no need for a holocaust museum, seeing as Israel has taken it upon itself to recreate it. #Israel #Nazis.” Billoo also has said that Zionism has no place in the LGBTQ+ community and antiracist movements; thereby, excluding the overwhelming majority of the American Jewish community.
Fair criticism of any government and its policies, including Israel, is an important aspect of democracy. But outright rejecting Jewish nationhood and singling out solely the Jewish state with inflammatory and virulent rhetoric is anti-Semitic, plain and simple. We call on its leadership to condemn the statements and sentiments of Billoo.