President Joe Biden’s pick for deputy administrator of the Small Business Administration serves on the board of a group that lobbies in support of the BDS movement and describes Israel as an “apartheid state,” reported the Washington Free Beacon.
Dilawar Syed has been on the board of Muslim-American advocacy group Emgage Action for the last four years, as listed in his public financial disclosure form which was submitted as part of his nomination process.
Emgage Action is a leading advocate of the BDS movement, which lobbies for a financial and cultural boycott of Israel.
According to the Washington Free Beacon, Emgage called BDS a "constitutionally protected nonviolent response that seeks to end the occupation" and stated that it "support[s] the right to boycott, divest, and sanction, as well as the Right of Return of Palestinians."
On its website, in a section titled “Palestine Annexation,” Emgage states that Palestinians "continue to suffer under racist, undemocratic Israeli apartheid rule that steals their land and destroys their homes to make way for illegal Jewish settlements."
Syed previous served the Obama White House on the Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders as worked as a liaison with the SBA and the Department of Commerce.
Syed’s ties to Emgage Action could be problematic for his confirmation vote by Senate Small Business Committee. The committee is chaired by Senator Ben Cardin (D, MD) who is one of the Democratic Party's most outspoken critics of BDS.
According to the BidenNoms website run by the American Accountability Foundation, while Syed was a board member, Emgage Action actively lobbied against Cardin’s 2019 anti-BDS law, the Israel Anti-Boycott Act, releasing a statement attacking BDS’s opponents in government.
“Emgage Action fully opposes any legislation, including S.1, that proposes restrictions on boycotts against any foreign countries,” they said.