Newsletter
Newsletter Support JNS

RJC: Biden nominee with anti-Israel ties ‘makes mockery’ of human rights

The group said Sarah Margon will be bitterly opposed by Republicans, but also urged pro-Israel Democrats to reject her nomination.

Sarah Margon. Source: Screenshot.
Sarah Margon. Source: Screenshot.

The Republican Jewish Coalition is urging senators to reject the nomination of Sarah Margon to a senior State Department post over her anti-Israel, pro-BDS history.

Margon, who has been nominated by the Biden administration to serve as assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor, previously ran the Washington office of Human Rights Watch, an organization with a history of anti-Israel bias that recently accused the Jewish state of engaging in apartheid.

RJC national chairman Norm Coleman said in a statement that U.S. President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken claim to oppose the anti-Israel BDS movement, “but now they want to install a supporter of Israel boycotts in a senior role.”

While RJC noted that presidents are historically given great leeway in choosing their advisers and the senate generally confirms most qualified candidates, they said that Margon’s nomination to a key role at the State Department dealing with democracy and human rights is “completely inappropriate.”

“She is an anti-Israel activist whose work makes a mockery of the concept of ‘human rights,’ ” said the group.

It added that she will be bitterly opposed by Republicans, though urged pro-Israel Democrats to reject her nomination as well.

“Her nomination will be resolutely opposed by Republicans and the Jewish community, who value the Jewish state and our strategic alliance with her,” it stated. “Those Democrats who profess to support Israel must join in the vote to reject this nomination.”

“People shouldn’t think that, ‘Oh this is not going to happen to me,’” the 32-year-old Judaic studies teacher told JNS. “It can happen to anyone walking the streets, anyone with their groceries.”
Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote that the New Jersey attorney general’s demand for donor information may deter donors from associating with First Choice, a Christian pregnancy resource center.
“It’s very important, not only for Israel, but also for the United States, that people will be more familiar with the real history,” Yigal Dilmoni, of American Friends of Judea and Samaria, told JNS.
“When influential voices spread conspiracy theories, promote terrorism or dehumanize Jewish people, it fuels real-world violence and intimidation,” Rep. Josh Gottheimer said.
The authority “continues to provide a system of compensation in support of terrorism through new mechanisms and under a different name,” the U.S. State Department informed Congress.
Shlomo Danzinger, an Orthodox Jew, narrowly defeated Vice Mayor Tina Paul with 50.4% of the vote after a court ruling extended the mail-in ballot deadline due to Passover.