Why did Kamala Harris invite an antisemitic Canadian poet to White House Diwali celebration? The story is that the poet turned down the invitation but the real story should be why that person was invited in the first place.

I was reading about a poet who refused the White House invitation and discovered the guest poet is a Canadian. Aren’t there enough Asian Americans to invite? Was there any vetting done of those who are invited? Kamala is hosting the event Wednesday at the vice president’s residence. She’s leaning in to her South Asian heritage when it is convenient. To tout a big Diwali event at the White House, she is all about it. Last year she and Joe Biden crowed that they held the largest Diwali celebration at the White House ever. That is really important to Joe Biden – to be able to note anything that is the biggest, the first, or some other historic marker about everything. He’s all about box-checking, which is why our country is in the mess it is.

Poet Rupi Kaur declined the invitation I’ll be honest and say I have never heard of her. Apparently she went viral on social media a while back. We know this administration is big on TikTok and other social media. The Biden administration has lots of social media influencers doing its bidding, getting its messages out to young voters and others.

Kaur objects to the Biden administration’s support of Israel in the Israel-Hamas war. She calls Israel’s defense of itself as “genocide.” She didn’t call Biden Genocide Joe but she did denounce the White House for not calling for a ceasefire. Anti-Israel activists mean just a ceasefire by Israel, not Hamas. The demand of ceasefire follows criticism of Israel defending herself against terrorists who wish to eliminate Israel and kill Jews.

“I’m surprised this administration finds it acceptable to celebrate Diwali, when their support of the current atrocities against Palestinians represent the exact opposite of what this holiday means to many of us,” she wrote in a statement posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.

“I refuse any invitation from an institution that supports the collective punishment of a trapped civilian population,” she said.

Surely there are other poets of South Asian descent who are American citizens that Kamala has invited. Kamala and her staff found an antisemitic Canadian who then turned around and blasted the administration. Well done, Kam.

The Canadian poet called on the South Asian community to hold the Biden administration accountable amid the Israel-Gaza war, saying that she “will not allow my likeness to be used in whitewashing the administration’s actions.”

“We must not be tokenized by their photo-ops,” she added.

Kaur’s statement, which was also posted to Instagram, drew support from her followers. Actress Richa Moorjani said she would also boycott the event, and Brown Girl Magazine said it had declined an invitation.

“Thank you for being a voice we can count on,” the magazine commented.

The Palestinian propaganda machine reports that at least 10,000 people have died in Gaza since Hamas massacred more than 1,400 people in Israel on October 7.