Congressional Candidate Omari Hardy Boldly Supports Palestinian Rights

By Philip Weiss, Mondoweiss

BDS has become a big issue in the Democratic primary election in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to fill an open seat in Congress.

Eleven candidates are running, and Omari Hardy, a 31-year-old state representative and former middle school teacher, has been unapologetic in his support for BDS and Palestinian human rights. He tweeted:

I understand that standing up for Palestinian rights comes at a political cost. I’m fine with that. I did not run for Congress to politicize people’s human rights.

The organized Jewish community has swarmed and smeared Hardy’s campaign. The pro-Israel lobby group the Democratic Majority for Israel [ed. note: this is the same group that aggressively attacked Nina Turner in her run for Congress] lately published an ad in the Jewish Journal of South Florida saying that Hardy supports an antisemitic program, BDS. The Jewish Journal has also run a piece saying “Omari Hardy must be defeated” with an original headline describing Hardy as “the Hitler of South Florida.” The smear has been removed from the headline but not from the article.