Palestinian-American activist Linda Sarsour has left Twitter following backlash over a tweet regarding the IDF’s presence in the Miami Surfside recuse mission.
On July 5, Sarsour retweeted a post shared by political activist Rafael Shimunov, in which he wrote, “I really don’t understand the IDF’s involvement in rescue attempts of people tragically crushed under buildings in Miami. Their expertise is crushing buildings with people in them, not rescuing them.”
Sarsour’s response, which she has since deleted, was simply two finger emojis pointing down at his tweet in agreement.
With a follower base of over 331,000 people, this is not the first time Sarsour has shared conspiracy theories and beliefs that have conjured up controversy.
In August 2015, Sarsour participated in a rally in support of terrorist Muhammad Alan, an Islamic Jihad activist who served three years in an Israeli prison for his involvement in a suicide bombing. She was forced to apologize in 2019 after saying: “Israel that is based on supremacy, is built on the idea that Jews are supreme to everyone else.”
After her tweet drew strong criticism, Sarsour deleted it but did not apologize for her comments, and instead announced that she would be taking a short break from social media.
“I’ll be back in a few days. This site is a place where those with no morals or values can take someone’s tweet & claim higher ground with no reflection or retrospection on the atrocities and injustice they support on a daily basis,” she tweeted, in an apparent deflection of her tweet’s offensive nature.
I’ll be back in a few days. This site is a place where those with no morals or values can take someone’s tweet & claim higher ground with no reflection or retrospection on the atrocities and injustice they support on a daily basis.
— Linda Sarsour (@lsarsour) July 6, 2021
Social media users were less than impressed, however.
“I believe what you meant to write was ‘I’m sorry,’” responded Julia Jassey, CEO of Jewish on Campus.
“Maybe publicly making fun of the tragedy in Surfside wasn’t such a good idea after all,” another responded.
Many also pointed out the hypocritical nature of Sarsour’s tweet, and those of others like it, and how they appear to be more upset by the presence of the IDF search and rescue delegation at the disaster site than they were about the disaster itself.
This is literally repugnant. With over 100 people still missing family members this is not some time for a political own. pic.twitter.com/jwOhjUIQtO
— Liv (@Kosherqueen_) July 6, 2021
Besides her tweet agreeing with Shimunov’s sentiment, Sarsour commented only once on the Surfside collapse, the day after it happened, when she simply tweeted: “This is devastating.”
Stand With Us Israel executive director Michael Dickson expressed his anger at Sarsour’s apparent apathy towards the tragedy in comparison to her displeasure over the presence of Israeli forces, saying:
“Shame on Linda Sarsour for this evil, heartless tweet, compounding the victims’ pain at a time when many Jewish people are still buried under rubble in Surfside, and while Israeli & American first responders work side by side to help them and their neighbors from all backgrounds.”