Socialist Wisconsin Dem apologizes for calling cops on antisemitic protest: I support a free Palestine

A leftist Wisconsin lawmaker running for governor has taken it on herself to apologize for previously calling the cops on an anti-Israel protest that her constituents said was antisemitic.Democratic Socialist Francesca Hong, who has been a vocal proponent of the “Defund the Police” movement, twice called 911 in late 2023 to report a display featuring an Israeli flag splattered with red paint.Her statement appears to be the latest sop to the virulent anti-Israel voices among the Democratic Socialist base.Hong has spent the last two years letting her anti-Israel flag fly — including by palling around with radical leftist streamer Hasan Piker, who frequently espouses extreme rhetoric denouncing the Jewish state.Her apology tour also included introducing a resolution calling for a cease-fire in Gaza, and a bill to repeal a law barring state and local governments from participating in Israel boycotts.During the 2024 election season, Hong was one of several elected officials who attempted to tank former President Joe Biden’s primary election in the swing state as retaliation for his response to the war in Gaza by encouraging nearly 50,000 voters to vote “uninstructed.”The 37-year-old also vehemently opposed a bill signed into law in March establishing a definition of “antisemitism” adopted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance in 2016 which is used to determine whether acts of violence or other crimes were motivated by antisemitism.Hong represents a wealthy, very white district that includes downtown Madison — Wisconsin’s capital and largest college town.“Three years ago, there was a piece of protest art at the encampments in Madison, which was photographed and posted to social media.My constituents reported they felt threatened and alerted me to the social post, but the image was cropped and incomplete to misrepresent anti-Zionism as antisemitism – a distinction I take seriously,” she told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.“Based o...