Democrat senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed has apologised for saying that “hurt people hurt people” after an attack on a synagogue earlier this year.
The apology by the former Detroit health director vying to win in Michigan in November’s mid-terms has been condemned as “too little, too late”, by his Republican opponent.
El-Sayed has previously attracted controversy with his views that Israel is an “ethno-state” committing “genocide” and his attacks against the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).
He made his controversial remarks in response to the March 12 attack on Temple Israel in West Bloomfield in the state.
Ayman Muhammad Ghazali, who rammed the synagogue with a car and shot at it, reportedly lost relatives in Israeli strikes in Lebanon.
Dozens of children were inside the synagogue at the time of the attack.
Ghazali died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was a naturalised US citizen.
The Israeli military said that two of his brothers, who were killed in the strikes, were members of Hezbollah.
El-Sayed decried the attack at the time and said that “violence is a cycle” and that “hurt people hurt people”.
On Saturday, he apologised, while appearing before the Michigan Democratic Jewish Caucus at the state party’s convention in Lansing.
He said: “My comments might have been misconstrued to be justifying something I did not intend to justify.
“To anybody who feels like my comments might have been hurtful, I’m really sorry. That was not my intention.
“We condemned that terrorist attack. We condemned it outright.
“What I was trying to do is offer context for why it happened, but it wasn’t the time for context, and you don’t ever want to trample somebody’s pain.”
CNN reported that “notably absent from El-Sayed’s remarks onstage Saturday was an attack on one of his most frequent targets during the primary: AIPAC” and that “he pointed to more than $60 million spent against him during that race, but did not mention the group responsible for that spending by name.”
Former congressman Mike Rogers, the Republican running against El-Sayed in Michigan said: “Abdul El-Sayed is trying to con Michiganders into thinking his beliefs have changed.”
“Let me be clear: they have not. Abdul has had six months to apologize for his incredibly horrific remarks regarding the Temple Israel attack.
“Instead, he chose to surround himself with terrorist sympathizers and some of the most notable antisemites in the country.
“It’s too little, too late, Abdul. Michiganders see you for exactly who you are: A conman.”
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