A member of the Trump administration’s “Commission on Religious Liberty” has been removed after a hearing turned contentious over her objection to the idea that anti-Zionism is antisemitism.
Carrie Prejean Boller, a Catholic conservative activist and model, took issue with the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, which has been embraced by the Trump administration’s Department of Justice and conflates criticism of the modern state of Israel with antisemitism.
“Undoubtedly, anti-Zionism is antisemitism,” Rabbi Ari Berman, president of Yeshiva University in New York, told Boller during one exchange. Boller then pointed to her Catholic faith, which does not affirm the idea that the Jewish people have a divine right to historic Palestine.
“I’m a Catholic, and Catholics do not embrace Zionism, just so you know, so are all Catholics antisemites?” she said. During the hearing, Boller also read testimony from Rabbi Yakoov Shaprio, an anti-Zionist Jew, and asked if his statement was “antisemitic.” In a post on X, Boller said she recommended Shapiro and several other Jewish Americans for the panel, but they were denied.
After facing backlash for her questioning, Boller vowed to continue speaking out. “I will never bend the knee to the state of Israel. Ever,” she said. “I am more determined than ever to speak plainly about political Zionism and the lies we’ve been sold to justify endless war, dead children, and blank checks.”
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, another commission member who interrupted Boller’s questioning during the hearing, said on Wednesday that Boller was being removed. “No member of the Commission has the right to hijack a hearing for their own personal and political agenda on any issue. This is clearly, without question, what happened Monday in our hearing on antisemitism in America. This was my decision,” he said.
