Palestinian journalist sparks controversy after referring to Hakeem Jeffries as 'AIPAC monkey'

"He is a bought-and-paid-for AIPAC monkey," she said of the black lawmaker. "With all due respect - and I don't mean it in a racist way. He is just basically an errand boy, and we're done and tired."

Palestinian journalist and author Rula Jebreal received backlash after calling House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries an "AIPAC monkey," while criticizing Jeffries' support for Israel on a podcast on Friday. 

"He is a bought-and-paid-for AIPAC monkey," she said of the black lawmaker. "With all due respect - and I don't mean it in a racist way. He is just basically an errand boy, and we're done and tired."

Additionally, the podcast host stepped in to clarify that the term "monkey" has "terrible racial connotations, but I think you caught yourself and said you didn’t mean it with any racial animosity.”

Jabreal responded that she had been referring to the image of three monkeys, one who cannot see, one who cannot hear, and one who cannot speak.

"It reminds me of these three monkeys," she said.

Black lawmakers reject Jebreal's defense, call statement racist

The Congressional Black Caucus rejected Jebreal's defense in a post on X/Twitter.

"To be clear, there isn’t a non-racist way to call Leader Jeffries–a Black man–a 'monkey' or 'errand boy,'" the caucus wrote.

New York Representative Richie Torres echoed the sentiment on X, writing that "calling a Black man a 'monkey' is racist. Full stop."

Jabreal wrote her own post on X, writing first that she was "disgusted and horrified that Hakeem Jeffries is taking money from AIPAC amidst Israel's genocide in Palestine," before adding "that said, a term that I used to describe him was inappropriate and offensive and should never have been used."