Zahra Billoo. Photo: Reuters / Rebecca Cook.

Zahra Billoo, a former head of the San Francisco chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations and fervent anti-Israel activist, has been voted off the board of the Women’s March days after her appointment was announced.

She blamed her dismissal on “an Islamophobic smear campaign” that was part of a conspiracy against the Women’s March by “right-wingers, from the President’s son to the Anti-Defamation League and troll armies.”

Three previous Women’s March leaders had stepped down from the organization amidst antisemitism controversies.

Billoo’s appointment was immediately controversial, due to a series of tweets she has posted that were criticized as anti-Israel and antisemitic.

Among the offending tweets, Billoo claimed, “Zionism is the violent ideology responsible for the genocide and displacement of indigenous Palestinians and the destruction of Palestinian land.”

She also repeated the slogan, “From the river to the sea, #Palestine will be free,” which many view as a genocidal call to destroy the Jewish state.

She compared the Israeli army unfavorably to ISIS on several occasions, writing that she did not “see any difference between American youth leaving the country to join ISIS or the IDF. Both are murderous, war crime committing, terrorist entities.”

“The Israeli Defense Forces, or the IDF, are no better than ISIS. They are both genocidal terrorist organizations,” she also wrote.

“I’ll call ISIS ‘Radical Islamic Terrorists’ if you’ll call the IDF ‘Radical Jewish Terrorists,’” she posited in another tweet.

She also asserted the US was a terrorist state due to its support for Israel, saying she was “waiting for everyone who demands that Muslims everywhere condemn 9/11 to now condemn US funded terrorism in #Palestine.”

Like previous leaders of the Women’s March, Billoo also appeared to praise antisemitic Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, tweeting that she was “watching a Farrakhan church speech, while at the gym.”

Taking to Twitter on Thursday to preempt news of her dismissal, Billoo revealed she had been voted off and said, “This followed an Islamophobic smear campaign led by the usual antagonists, who have long targeted me, my colleagues, and anyone else who dares speak out in support of Palestinian human rights and the right to self-determination.”

“During the past few years right-wingers, from the President’s son to the Anti-Defamation League and troll armies, have targeted the Women’s March, Inc.,” she added.

“To see and experience its new leaders caving to right-wing pressure, and casting aside a woman of color, a Muslim woman, a long-time advocate within the organization, without the willingness to make any efforts to learn and grow, breaks my heart,” she stated.

“To be clear, anti-Semitism is indeed a growing and dangerous problem in our country,” she acknowledged, before continuing, “I condemn any form of bigotry unequivocally, but I also refuse to be silent as allegations of bigotry are weaponized against the most marginalized people.”

Referring to her controversial attacks on Israel and the US, she noted, “In looking at the tweets in question, I acknowledge that I wrote passionately. While I may have phrased some of my content differently today, I stand by my words.”

Since this is going to be in your newsfeeds in the morning – here’s a thread about me being voted off the board of @WomensMarch tonight 1/

— Zahra Billoo (@ZahraBilloo) September 19, 2019