Update: The BDS event has been rescheduled down the street from the Capitol.
***Original Post***
Earlier this week, we reported on the alarming news that a mystery lawmaker was sponsoring the first ever anti-Israel forum on Capitol Hill to offer a voice to the BDS movement, a campaign to boycott Israeli goods and services. That anonymous lawmaker has been revealed as Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX). Now, however, she has withdrawn her sponsorship and the event has been cancelled, her team insisting it had been organized by a staffer who is no longer working for the congresswoman.So, to recap.Tuesday, however, Jackson Lee's office confirmed to TWS that the room had been booked by a former staffer, and that they had withdrawn their sponsorship. A senior House GOP aide later told TWS that the event had also been cancelled.
"That room was actually booked by a staffer that's no longer with us, back in March," Jackson Lee's communications director, Mike McQuerry, told TWS. "This was done without the knowledge of anyone in the office."
"We've taken our name off of booking the room," he continued. "We weren't involved with planning."
Lawmaker secretly sponsors anti-Israel event in Congress.
— Omri Ceren (@cerenomri) September 14, 2016
Reporter outs lawmaker.
Lawmaker rethinks.@jlifhitshttps://t.co/6XNMHNSEEW
This controversy comes as the U.S. just signed a $38 billion aid package for Israel that is the largest in history.
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