(JTA) — A fringe Jewish group is demanding that a kosher restaurant fire the brother of Palestinian-American activist Linda Sarsour.
Mohammed Sarsour, known as Moe, is a manager at Izzy’s Brooklyn Smokehouse restaurant, The New York Jewish Week reported. His sister has clashed with pro-Israel groups over her support of the movement to boycott Israel and a one-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The Jewish Defense Organization, which advertises a Jewish self-defense camp and runs a sporadically updated web site, posted throughout Crown Heights in Brooklyn a flier calling Linda Sarsour a “hard core Hamas Islamic Nazi terrorist” and her brother a “pro-Hamas terror [sic] who works at Izzy [sic] Smokehouse. … Let us run him out now before it’s too late!!”
Linda Sarsour is executive director of the Arab American Association of New York and was one of the lead organizers of the Women’s March on Washington in January. In addition to her pro-Palestinian activism, she ran a crowdfunding campaign that raised over $100,000 for a vandalized Jewish cemetery outside of St. Louis.
Mohammed Sarsour did not comment to The Jewish Week on the movement to get him fired. A JDO representative told the newspaper that while more extreme elements of the group put out the flier, the organization would continue to work toward Sarsour’s ouster.
Prior to working at Izzy’s, Mohammed Sarsour worked next door at his father’s neighborhood market, which has since closed.
Simcha Bard, 26, a Jewish Republican strategist, condemned the flier.
“Linda Sarsour is problematic; Mohammed isn’t,” he told The Jewish Week. “Quite frankly, anything you might associate with Linda in any way, shape or form shouldn’t define her brother.
“Linda is fair game, but to attack Mohammed is truly unfair considering his decency and his record of public service, having saved a stabbing victim.”
Bard said he was calling on all his friends to eat at the restaurant in support of Mohammed Sarsour.
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