The White House hosted anti-Semitic activist Linda Sarsour in May 2023, three years after then-candidate Joe Biden publicly disavowed the prominent Jew hater, citing her long record of anti-Israel incitement and support for boycotting the Jewish state.
Sarsour—who has compared Zionism to "white supremacy in America" and questions Israel’s right to exist—appears to have attended a White House celebration of Eid al-Fitr, a Muslim holiday that marks the end of the Ramadan fasting period. Sarsour joined around 400 others at a White House event that day, visitor logs show. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.), the Squad member who also has trafficked in anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and championed anti-Israel priorities in Congress, attended as well.
Sarsour’s appearance at the White House, which garnered little attention at the time, occurred just three years after the Biden campaign publicly cut ties with her over support for the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement and long history of anti-Israel advocacy.
She is one of several well-known anti-Semites to have been hosted at the White House in recent years, visitor logs show, even as the Biden administration claims to be combating an explosion of Jew hatred across America in the wake of Hamas’s Oct. 7 strike on Israel. Other White House partners have included the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), one of the primary advocacy groups driving anti-Israel unrest across the country.
Still, Sarsour’s appearance in the Biden White House is particularly notable due to her very public clash with the president’s 2020 campaign.
At the time, Sarsour appeared on a Democratic National Committee panel, discussing how to "defeat fascism" and rally the "Muslim American community" to vote for Biden. After her presence was noted in the media, the Biden campaign quickly denounced the veteran activist.
"Joe Biden has been a strong supporter of Israel and a vehement opponent of anti-Semitism his entire life, and he obviously condemns her views and opposes BDS, as does the Democratic platform," Andrew Bates, a Biden campaign spokesman who now works at the White House, said of Sarsour in a statement. "She has no role in the Biden campaign whatsoever."
That initial rebuke, however, was soon walked back in private Biden campaign communications with activists. During a subsequent phone call with Muslim and Arab advocates, Biden aide Ashley Allison reportedly described the comments about Sarsour as "disrespectful" and "hurtful."
These types of controversies have become a hallmark of the Biden White House since the president was elected.
The administration, for instance, enlisted CAIR in a June 2023 unveiling of its national strategy to counter anti-Semitism. The advocacy group’s inclusion in the project raised eyebrows in the American Jewish community, with critics saying that CAIR’s longtime promotion of anti-Israel conspiracy theories should disqualify it from participating. Again, just weeks later, the White House circulated messages to the American Jewish community claiming that CAIR would not be involved in the effort.
Similarly, the White House was forced to publicly condemn CAIR executive director Nihad Awad after he celebrated Hamas’s terror strike on Israel, saying he "was happy to see" it occur.
The White House has also hosted anti-Semitic activist Tamika Mallory on at least five occasions, visitor logs show. Like Sarsour, Mallory was booted from the Women’s March movement for promoting anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and expressing support for Louis Farrakhan, the Nation of Islam leader who describes Jews as his "enemy."
Mallory herself has said Jews are "the mother and father of apartheid," and that Jews in Hollywood advocate "degenerate behavior," both anti-Semitic canards. On at least one occasion, the White House publicly touted Mallory’s participation in a roundtable discussion with Vice President Kamala Harris.
The Biden administration's simultaneous condemnation and embrace of anti-Israel activists has not gone unnoticed in the Jewish community.
"Bringing CAIR in to help craft an anti-Semitism policy is like having Darth Vader take Princess Leia to the prom," said Liora Rez, founder of StopAntisemitism.org, a watchdog group that closely tracks these issues. "Not only is CAIR a shockingly anti-Semitic organization, it’s an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation federal anti-terrorism case. And Linda Sarsour is a known Jew-hater who embraces the vile bigot Louis Farrakhan."
"Sarsour and CAIR should never be anywhere near the White House, let alone inside. It’s a disgrace and stain on this administration."
The White House isn’t the only Biden administration organ to coordinate with anti-Israel forces.
Internal State Department emails published by the Washington Free Beacon in May show U.S. diplomats coordinating policy with Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), a human rights group that is highly critical of the Israeli government and lobbied the Biden administration to cut off military aid to the Jewish state. DAWN’s advocacy prompted both the State Department and Pentagon to prevent American officials from engaging with Jewish Israelis living in the West Bank and other disputed territories around Jerusalem.
Concerns have also been raised about several Biden administration officials who have ties to anti-Israel groups and even the Iranian regime.
Semafor reported in September 2023 that Pentagon official Ariane Tabatabai was allegedly involved in an Iranian propaganda network linked to Tehran’s hardline regime. This prompted calls in Congress for Tabatabai to have her security clearance stripped, though little has happened since the report was published.
Additionally, Maher Bitar, a White House official who works on intelligence matters, was reportedly a campus member of Students for Justice in Palestine, the aggressively anti-Israel advocacy group that is behind violent protests at colleges across the nation.