Chairman Steve Knotts: “Omeish Should Resign or Be Removed”
Press Release | Fairfax GOP
The Fairfax GOP is blasting the “hateful screeds” of Abrar Omeish — and calling for the school board member’s resignation. “Instead of focusing on core educational issues, Abrar Omeish is busy fomenting hatred and division,” Fairfax GOP Chairman Steve Knotts said today. “Fairfax County deserves better. Omeish should resign or be removed from the school board.”
The chairman’s comments follow Omeish’s assertions that Israel practices “apartheid” and “colonization”; “desecrates the Holy Land” and “kills Palestinians.” Omeish’s words can be viewed on the same Twitter and Facebook accounts that she uses to communicate with constituents.
“Reading Omeish’s hateful screeds, I can only conclude that she is deeply anti-Semitic — or at the very least, a visceral hater of Israel and its people,” Knotts said. “Either way, Omeish’s bigotry is just not consistent with her duty to serve the best interests of all students, no matter their background. I call on Fairfax Democrats to join me in condemning Omeish’s venomous words and demanding her resignation as well.”
At least one county Democrat, school board member Melanie Meren, took issue with Omeish’s anti-Israel views. “I’m aghast at the alienation @AbrarOmeish’s sentiment has cast on many in our community,” Meren tweeted. However, the board member’s tweet did not urge her embattled colleague to resign — and notably, Meren disabled public comments.
Even before this latest controversy, many in Fairfax County were demanding Omeish’s removal from the school board. Omeish and others on the board are currently facing a grassroots, citizen-led recall drive. “@MelanieForEdu, I would be happy to bring you a copy of @AbrarOmeish’s recall petition whenever you’re ready,” wrote Twitter user @Voice4FCPSKids.
Fairfax GOP Chairman Steve Knotts endorsed the citizen-led recall effort today. “We have to restore common sense and decency to our school board,” the chairman said. “Ideologues on the board have lost sight of their mission to educate students. Even as schoolhouse doors were needlessly closed for more than a year, board members were focused on vacuous theories of ‘social justice.’ In the name of ‘One Fairfax,’ they have only sown division. In the name of ‘anti-racism,’ they have abandoned the dream of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It’s time to end this ideological madness — let’s get back to basics with a new school board.”
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The Fairfax GOP is the Republican Party of Virginia’s largest political unit. Follow us on Twitter: @FairfaxGOP.
