Rashida Tlaib may 'blow up Congress', says Israeli-born Florida official in 'sick joke'

A Florida city commissioner has come under fire after posting a vitriolic Facebook post saying Palestinian-American congresswoman Rashida Tlaib may "blow up" the US Capitol.

Annabelle Lima-Taub, a US city commissioner born in Israel,
posted a petition calling for Tlaib to be removed from office on her personal Facebook page with the caption:

"A Hamas-loving anti-Semite has NO place in government! She is a danger and [I] would not put it past her to become a martyr and blow up Capitol Hill."

The post was removed from Lima-Taub's Facebook page shortly after.

Tlaib, who was sworn in to office in January as one of the first Muslims in US history to take a seat in Congress, responded by likening the Florida commissioner's remarks to previous comments made by President Donald Trump.

"This sort of hateful anti-Muslim rhetoric doesn't happen in a vacuum - this President embraced it and Republicans have happily gone along with it," Tlaib said on Twitter.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations' Florida chapter also weighed in, blasting Lima-Taub's comments as "xenophobic" and "un-American".

"Holding a public office comes with great responsibilities. Xenophobic stereotypes shall not be embraced by any elected official," CAIR Florida's communications director Wilfredo Ruiz wrote in a statement.

"Her un-American, xenophobic statements establish that she is unfit to hold the Commissioner's seat."

Despite the outrage caused, Lima-Taub stuck by her comments by alleging links between Tlaib, Hamas and Hizballah.

"I urge anyone that was offended by it, especially some of the self-righteous colleagues that I have, to research and Google BDS, Google Hamas, Google Hizballah, Look up CAIR and look up Rashida Tlaib's affiliations with these groups," Lima-Taub told NBC 6 on Tuesday.

Lima-Taub's office could not be reached by The New Arab for comment.