US Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) deleted a tweet blaming a deadly shooting attack against a New Jersey kosher deli on "white supremacy" after users pointed out that those allegedly responsible were Black Hebrew Israelites.
"This is heartbreaking. White supremacy kills," Tlaib posted to her personal Twitter account on Thursday, two days after a Jersey City shootout claimed the lives of a police officer and three members of the local Jewish community.
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After being informed that the shooters, identified as David Anderson, 47, and his girlfriend, 50-year-old Francine Graham, were, in fact, African Americans, Tlaib removed the message from her social media feed.
Tlaib, the first Palestinian-American US Representative ever elected, later posted a tweet to her official congressional account expressing her condolences over the incident, saying it "It was beyond heartbreaking to learn of what appears to be another anti-Semitic act of violence."
It was beyond heartbreaking to learn of what appears to be another anti-Semitic act of violence. The hate growing in our country is toxic. https://t.co/UuRANNA9ZZ
— Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (@RepRashida) December 11, 2019
But the initial tweet left some members of the American Jewish community reeling.
"It's telling, and frankly sick, that Tlaib tweeted out sympathies for the Jews that were murdered blaming it on white supremacists," journalist Shoshanna Keats Jaskoll said of Tlaib's original message.
"Didn't care enough to find out what happened. Just enough to use dead Jews for her political agenda," she added.
On Wednesday, The New York Times reported that Anderson had a history of publishing anti-Semitic and anti-police posts online, citing an official with knowledge on the situation.
The Black Hebrew Israelites are an African American religious movement claiming heritage from the ancient Israelites. It has no links with mainstream Judaism and is designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The latest reports confirm the attack was specifically aimed at the JC Kosher Supermarket, with authorities saying that footage from surveillance cameras helped construct their assessment.
"Based on our initial investigation [which is ongoing] we now believe the active shooters targeted the location they attacked," Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop said.
This article was originally published by i24NEWS.
