Muriel Bowser pressed by GOP to rename DC’s Black Lives Matter Plaza over ‘antisemitism’

EXCLUSIVE — Republican lawmakers are requesting Washington, D.C., Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser “immediately rename” Black Lives Matter Plaza in the nation’s capital over groups in the left-wing movement boosting Hamas after the terror group murdered innocent Israelis.

BLM has come under the national spotlight on the heels of chapters across the United States expressing sympathy for the Palestinian terror group Hamas, which on Oct. 7 attacked the Jewish state of Israel, killing, raping, and abducting civilians. Bowser is now being asked by 25 GOP senators and House members to not only change the name of the plaza but remove a street mural there and “end the city’s celebration of this terrorist sympathizer group,” according to a letter sent Monday evening.

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“BLM continues to openly celebrate the antisemitic Hamas terrorist attacks against Israel,” the lawmakers, led by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN), wrote to Bowser. “This stance is irreconcilable with American values. America must clearly affirm its stance against antisemitism, wherever it appears.”

BLM Plaza is a two-block pedestrian section near the White House that received its name after the murder of George Floyd in 2020. It features 35-foot-tall yellow letters spelling “Black Lives Matter,” and construction costs were estimated at $7.8 million, the Washington Post reported.

The GOP letter noted that BLM Chicago recently posted a graphic on social media of a Hamas terrorist in a paraglider with the caption, “I stand with Palestine.” It also said that BLM in Washington, D.C., “posted that Israel is guilty of ‘apartheid,’ while sharing posts that cast doubt on the atrocities that took place on Oct. 7, including the beheading of babies.”

The Republicans slammed BLM Grassroots, which has 26 chapters and referred to the deadly Hamas attack in mid-October as a “desperate act of self-defense,” as an entity that “threw its support behind these murderous attacks.”

AP Images/Canva/Washington Examiner/Muriel Bowser/Black Lives Matter Plaza, Washington, D.C.

“These posts are meant to delegitimize Israel and rationalize brutal attacks on the Jewish people,” the Republicans wrote in the letter, which was also signed by Sens. Thom Tillis (R-NC), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Rick Scott (R-FL), Josh Hawley (R-MO), Steve Daines (R-MT), and House Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik (R-NY), among others.

“It is hard to escape the conclusion that these statements are motivated by an ugly animus against the Jewish people,” the lawmakers continued. “BLM Grassroots said the Hamas attack ‘must not be condemned but understood’ as resistance to ’75 years of settler colonialism and apartheid.’ Those 75 years account for the entire existence of the Jewish state.”

Bowser has said in the past she rejects “terrorism in all its forms” and that “antisemitism has no place in our institutions, our country, our world or our hearts,” the Republicans said, adding they “wholeheartedly agree with this statement.”

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“We further believe that movements that celebrate violent anti-semitism should not be honored by the government with a plaza, especially one located directly outside of our nation’s White House,” the letter said.

Bowser’s office did not return a request for comment.