Trump admin’s religious liberty panel axes ‘anti-Zionist’ commissioner

The Trump administration’s Religious Liberty Commission removed one of its members on Wednesday after she used a hearing on antisemitism to demand that witnesses condemn Israel and insisted that it was not antisemitic to declare that Jews killed Jesus.

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who chairs the commission, wrote that Carrie Jean Boller, a former Miss California who is now a conservative activist, had abused her role as a commissioner at Monday’s hearing.

“No member of the Commission has the right to hijack a hearing for their own personal and political agenda on any issue,” Patrick wrote. “This is clearly, without question, what happened Monday in our hearing on antisemitism in America. This was my decision.”

U.S. President Donald Trump created the Religious Liberty Commission in May and appointed Boller as one of its 13 members.

Its fifth hearing on Monday featured the testimony of witnesses from religious organizations, college campuses and the administration about efforts to combat Jew-hatred in America, but frequently featured lengthy digressions from Boller about Israel and whether it was antisemitic to oppose Zionism.

“Since we’ve mentioned Israel a total of 17 times, are you willing to condemn what Israel has done in Gaza?” Boller asked Shabbos Kestenbaum, a Jewish activist.

Boller, who converted to Catholicism in April, repeatedly made sweeping assertions about her interpretation of Catholic doctrine as it relates to Jews and Israel despite rejoinders from another Catholic commissioner and a Catholic priest who testified at the hearing.

“I’m a Catholic, and Catholics do not embrace Zionism, just so you know, so are all Catholics antisemites?” Boller asked one of the witnesses.

Boller’s social media activity in recent months has been dominated by expressions of support for the conservative commentators Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson and condemnations of Israel. She also began wearing a Palestinian flag pin on her lapel about halfway through the hearing.

In the days since, she has returned to social media, where she has gained tens of thousands of followers after the hearing, to revel in her performance and complain about criticism from “Zionists.”

“I will never bend the knee to the state of Israel. Ever,” she wrote on Wednesday. “I am not owned by money, donors or access. I belong to Christ alone who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. I would rather die than bend the knee to Israel.”

She also posted a photo of herself with Sameerah Munshi, a Muslim community activist who remains on the Religious Liberty Commission’s advisory board of lay leaders.

“This is every Zionist supremacist’s worst nightmare,” Boller wrote. “We condemn Zionist supremacy and the demanding we deny our individual faith for the fear of being called an antisemite.”

JNS sought comment from the White House about Boller’s removal from the commission.

Owens, who Boller claimed has never said anything antisemitic during Monday’s hearing, criticized the decision to remove her from the commission on Wednesday.

“Zionists are naturally hostile to Catholics because we refuse to bend the knee to revisionist history and support the mass slaughter and rape of innocent children for occult Baal worshipers,” Owens wrote.

Jewish and pro-Israel groups welcomed Boller’s removal from the commission on Wednesday.

“Those who seek to divide Jews and Christians, spread falsehoods about Israel and attack those who are fighting for religious freedom in our nation should have no place on a commission dedicated to religious liberty,” wrote Christians United for Israel.

Nathan Diament, executive director of the Orthodox Union Advocacy Center, told JNS that he was grateful to the White House and chairman Patrick for taking “swift action” to remove Boller.

“Good riddance to Carrie Prejean Boller and anyone who defends hate,” Diament said.

© JNS