(Image source from: Washington Report on Middle East Affairs)

The "People Acting in Community Together" (PACT), grassroots organization has revoked an award honoring Muslim attorney and civil rights activist Zahra Billoo.

The unaccustomed decision came after supposed pressure from Jewish members of the organization who opposed her criticism of the Israeli regime.

The Executive director of the Northern California chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relation (CAIR) Zahra Billoo said PACT leaders reached out to her saying opposition to her accolade was rising and the San Jose-based organization's "institutional funding" was at stake as well its Jewish members were forbidding to leave.

She said that representatives from PACT, which stands for People Acting in Community proposed honoring someone else from CAIR or honoring CAIR as a total, merely Billoo refused.

"As outsiders to our community and organization, it was unacceptable for them to attempt to dictate who our leaders are and to make an award to the organization contingent on the (executive director) not accepting it," she said.

"All of these options were intended to appease the opposing Jewish leaders but would also minimize my defense of Palestinian human rights and role as an American Muslim leader. This was unacceptable."

She said she refused to draw back from accepting the grant and told PACT body that if those were the solitary options, they would have revoked the acknowledgment.

The Executive director of PACT Akemi Flynn took brimful obligation for the decision and she was regretful for the pain caused Billoo and others in the community.

"We were trying to do what we thought was best, to be responsive to our membership and our community," she said. "We did not anticipate the intense reaction that we received. We realized it could have and should have been handled differently."

In a series of Tweets in May, Billoo criticized Muslims employed with the Anti-Defamation League and accused organization of allegedly opposing human right and civil activists during the South African apartheid, attacking Black Lives Matter activists after they backed a global Palestinian-led movement for freedom and justice and supporting Israeli bombings of Gaza, among various others.

In March, PACT announced Billoo as one of its honorees for the group’s annual leadership luncheon on October 8, which acknowledge community members for their civic leadership.

By Sowmya Sangam