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Muslims, Democrats and social media customers expressed their displeasure on Wednesday with remarks made by Republican Consultant Andy Ogles of Tennessee, who responded to an activist’s query in regards to the deaths of Palestinian kids in Gaza by asserting that “we should always kill ‘em all”.
In an announcement launched Wednesday, the American Muslim Advisory Council (AMAC) “unequivocally” denounced Ogles and wrote that his remarks have been tantamount to advocating for “the extermination of the Palestinian individuals”.
Noting a rise in anti-Muslim assaults throughout Tennessee since Israel started its indiscriminate bombing and blockade of Gaza in October, AMAC wrote:
“Such rhetoric shouldn’t be solely abhorrent but in addition antithetical to our values as a state. It’s such rhetoric that has continued to foster a political local weather the place extremist ideologies flourish, empowering neo-Nazis to overtly parade by way of our streets and permitting genocidal sentiments to go unchallenged. This can’t be tolerated any longer. As residents of Tennessee, we deserve higher illustration from these elected to workplace.”
On the social media platform often known as X, the opprobrium directed at Ogles was even worse, with one consumer writing Wednesday:
“Identify em and disgrace em! Say hello to Andrew ‘I believe we should always kill em all’ Ogles. This extraordinary piece of feces is a USA congressman.”
One other consumer, posting as Saira Rao, wrote:
“Andrew Ogles, a sitting member of Congress, says the quiet half out loud. ‘I believe we should always kill ‘em all.’ He states WE [America] are chargeable for killing all Palestinians [genocide]. Congress + Biden + Whole Cupboard are ALL WAR CRIMINALS Palestine might be free.”
Noting that Palestinians are additionally Semitic individuals, Susan Jones posted on X:
“‘I believe we should always kill ‘em all.’ @AndrewOgles #SenatorofTennessee Has NO Disgrace in his admission of #USIsraeliINTENT to commit #USIsraeliGenocide of #IndigenousSEMITICPalestinians and the IRONY is totally misplaced on the ignorant that #KillingPalestiniansISANTISEMITISM!!!”
Ogles’s feedback have been in response to a pro-Palestinian activist who peppered him with questions as the 2 walked by way of a hall in the USA Capitol.
“I’ve seen the footage of shredded kids’s our bodies,” the activist advised Ogles. “That’s my taxpayer {dollars} which can be going to bomb these children.”
Ogles responded bluntly: “You recognize what? So, I believe we should always kill ’em all if that makes you’re feeling higher. Hamas and the Palestinians have been attacking Israel for 20 years. It’s time to pay the piper.”
Lastly, Ogles turned in the direction of a digital camera and uttered a closing remark earlier than strolling away: “Dying to Hamas!”
In an electronic mail to the congressman’s hometown newspaper, The Tennessean, Ogles’s spokesperson Emma Settle wrote: “The Congressman was not referring to Palestinians, he was clearly referring to the Hamas terrorist group.”
They cant even pretend it anymore. #AndrewOgles you’re a warfare legal #SaveRafah https://t.co/Q4NW6koKwo
— Lea (@LeaOrtizRivera) February 20, 2024
The alternate between Ogles and the activist occurred on February 15, however video footage of Ogles’s remarks was posted to social media hours after the administration of President Joe Biden vetoed a ceasefire resolution on the United Nations Safety Council on Tuesday, representing the third time since Israel’s assault started that the US has voted in opposition to a suspension of hostilities in Gaza.
A primary-term congressman, Ogles represents Tennessee’s gerrymandered fifth district, which was created in 2022 to favour Republican candidates and features a swath of the state capital of Nashville. Hours earlier than the US exercised its veto, a spokesman for the United Nations Youngsters’s Fund (UNICEF) warned that Gaza is “poised to witness an explosion in preventable child deaths” as malnutrition and illness unfold quickly throughout the enclave.
Israeli forces have killed greater than 12,400 children in Gaza since October 7, in response to Palestinian well being authorities. Greater than 600,000 kids are at the moment trapped within the metropolis of Rafah on the Egyptian border, with Israeli forces getting ready to invade. Moreover, officers with the charity organisation Save the Youngsters say that almost 10 Palestinian kids in Gaza per day have misplaced one or each of their legs since October.
“After 4 months of relentless violence, we’re operating out of phrases to explain what kids and households in Gaza are going by way of, in addition to the instruments to reply in any sufficient manner,” Jason Lee, Save the Youngsters’s nation director for the occupied Palestinian territory, mentioned in an announcement Tuesday. “The dimensions of demise and destruction is astronomical.”
“Youngsters are being failed by the adults who needs to be defending them,” Lee added. “It’s past time for the adults within the room to step up their duties and authorized obligations to kids caught up in a battle they performed no half in, who simply need to have the ability to stay.”
A Nashville Metro Council member, Zulfat Suara, advised The Tennessean that she discovered about Ogles’s feedback whereas at a council assembly Tuesday night time. Coincidentally, on the agenda that night was a decision condemning the general public show of Nazi symbols, chants and hate speech in downtown Nashville throughout a rally final weekend.
Born in Nigeria, Suara, a Democrat, is the primary Muslim individual elected to the metropolitan authorities of Nashville and Davidson County. She mentioned that rhetoric like Ogles’s encourages individuals “to march and preach hate”.
She advised The Tennessean: “Within the battle abroad, I’ve been very conscious of what I say and the way I say it as a result of I wish to guarantee that my Jewish mates will not be harm in what I say and to guarantee that my Palestinian households are taken care of. However when legislators on the federal degree and the state degree proceed to demonize individuals, proceed to solely take a look at one aspect and never the opposite, that’s the outcome that we see on the streets. And I hope that we are going to proceed to do higher.
“This otherization, this demonization, this ‘Kill all of them’ is simply breaking us aside.”
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