Trump slams Rashida Tlaib for ‘tremendous hatred of Israel’ after controversial Holocaust comment

US President Donald Trump has lashed out at Democratic Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, accusing her of “tremendous hatred of Israel and the Jewish people” after she made controversial comments about the Holocaust.

Tlaib, the first Palestinian-American woman elected to the US Congress, said during a recent Yahoo News podcast that when she thinks of the Holocaust she remembers that Palestinians “lost their land and some lost their lives” all “in the name of trying to create a safe haven for Jews.”

Thinking of the Palestinian losses and Palestinian effort to help Jews “post-tragedy,” she said, gives her “kind of a calming feeling” — although some conservative news organizations and Republicans interpreted her words to mean that thinking of the Holocaust itself evoked the calming feeling.

Trump took to Twitter on Monday to slam what he called the “horrible and highly insensitive statement” and accused the congresswoman of hating Jewish people and the state of Israel. “Can you imagine what would happen if I ever said what she said, and says?” he wrote.

House Minority Whip Steve Scalise also condemned Tlaib for the “vile comments” and called on House speaker Nancy Pelosi to take “swift action” against her.

During the podcast, however, Tlaib also spoke of the “horrific persecution of Jews” but said that Palestinians were forced to give up their land “in a way that took their human dignity away.”

Tlaib has stood by her words despite condemnation from conservatives, releasing a statement on Sunday accusing right-wing activists and Republicans of “spreading outright lies to incite hate.”

“The congresswoman did not in any way praise the Holocaust, nor did she say the Holocaust itself brought a calming feeling to her,” the statement added.

The Tlaib comments controversy is the latest in a line of recent accusations of anti-Semitism being lobbed from both sides of the US political divide.

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