Rep. Ilhan Omar confronted US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee in Jerusalem's Muslim Quarter after a tour bus carrying American visitors on a program associated with the ambassador arrived with window and hood stickers reading "Make Israel Great," "Israel First" and "Send them back," according to a FastCompany investigation published October 16. Omar, who was in Israel on a personal trip, challenged Huckabee directly about the stickers. A local witness said he removed the stickers during the encounter. Huckabee has not publicly commented, and who produced the stickers is not established.
The bus rolled into the Muslim Quarter carrying 'Make Israel Great' and 'Send them back' — and the congresswoman who happened to be there walked straight up to the ambassador
JERUSALEM — The confrontation was not scheduled, staged or announced. According to FastCompany's investigation, a group of American tourists was travelling through Israel on a program associated with Mike Huckabee, the United States ambassador to Israel, who had invited the visitors under a program funded by the Friends of Zion Museum. When the group's tour bus stopped in the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem's Old City, its windows and hood carried stickers bearing three slogans: "Make Israel Great," "Israel First" and "Send them back." A second bus was reportedly decorated the same way.
Rep. Ilhan Omar, the Minnesota Democrat, was in Israel on a personal trip and happened to be in the area. Omar and Rep. Gregory Meeks were travelling in the country with the approval of the House Ethics Committee. Seeing the bus, Omar confronted Huckabee directly about the stickers. The scene was photographed by New York Magazine photographer Andrew Adams. Huckabee has not publicly commented on the encounter, and the Friends of Zion Museum has not responded to requests for comment.
What happened in the Muslim Quarter
The fullest account of the encounter comes from Shai Farkash, co-operator of the Kulna Jerusalem cultural center in the Muslim Quarter, who witnessed it. "Ambassador Huckabee arrived at the location and, within minutes, Rep. Ilhan Omar appeared and confronted him regarding the stickers bearing offensive slogans such as 'Send them back!' and 'Israel First,'" Farkash told FastCompany. Farkash said he removed the stickers himself during the confrontation.
Omar's office has confirmed the core of that account. Her spokesperson, Jacklyn Rogers, confirmed that Omar confronted Huckabee, saying she did so to stand up for her Muslim constituents. Omar, who represents a Minneapolis district and is one of the first Muslim women elected to Congress, has been a prominent critic of US policy toward Israel; Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor, is among the most outspokenly pro-Israel figures in the Trump administration. Neither office, however, has released a fuller statement describing what was said, and the exchange itself is known only through the witness account, the photographs and the confirmation from Omar's side.
One detail from the photographer matters to how the scene is read. Adams, who shot the encounter for New York Magazine, said the stickers were tolerated by the tourists on the bus — "not necessarily forced on them." That observation cuts against any suggestion that the slogans were imposed on unwilling passengers, and it is part of why the episode has drawn attention: the messages were, by that account, simply allowed to ride.
The stickers: what they said, and what is not known
The three slogans are not in dispute — they were photographed on the bus. "Make Israel Great" adapts the Trump campaign's signature phrase. "Israel First" echoes the "America First" doctrine. "Send them back" is the slogan with the sharpest edge, particularly displayed on a vehicle parked in the Muslim Quarter, one of the four quarters of the Old City and home to Palestinian residents and businesses: it was that phrase, and "Israel First," that the witness singled out as the offensive slogans Omar confronted the ambassador about.
What is not established is who produced the stickers, who put them on the bus, or whether anyone in an official capacity approved them. Signal Post News is not going to fill that gap with speculation, because the reporting does not fill it either. What is documented is that the slogans did not appear for the first time on this trip. In August 2025, The Wirecutter documented the same sticker slogans on buses in Israel and spoke with the designer of the stickers, who referred questions to travel agents — a trail that ends, in the public reporting, well short of identifying who commissions or distributes them.
That unknown is the honest centre of this story. A bus on a program associated with the serving US ambassador carried a slogan telling an unnamed "them" to be sent back, in a neighbourhood whose residents could reasonably read themselves as its target. Whether that was a deliberate provocation, an operator's branding decision, or merchandise the tourists picked up along the way is precisely what has not been answered — and precisely what a comment from the ambassador's office or the program's funder could settle.
Reactions — and the silences
The confirmed reactions are, so far, mostly absences. Huckabee has not publicly commented. The Friends of Zion Museum, which funded the program under which Huckabee invited the tourists, has not responded to requests for comment. From Omar's side, the only statement is her spokesperson's confirmation and its stated motive: standing up for her Muslim constituents.
Beyond the verified accounts, political commentary has moved faster than the facts. Campaign-focused reporting, including the Substack publication The Age of Roosevelt, has alleged that Huckabee pushed the allied group to tour the Muslim Quarter — a claim about who chose the route that goes beyond what the witness account and the photographs establish, and which Signal Post News carries here as an attributed allegation, not a verified fact. Who selected the itinerary, and whether the Muslim Quarter stop was routine or chosen, remains unconfirmed by any party to the trip.
The two readings of the episode track the two figures in it. To Omar's supporters, a congresswoman who found a US-linked tour displaying "Send them back" in a Palestinian neighbourhood did what representatives are supposed to do, in person. To Huckabee's supporters, solidarity tours and their slogans are expressions of support for an ally, and a chance encounter has been inflated into a scandal. The verified record supports a narrower statement than either: the stickers were there, they were tolerated, a witness removed them, the ambassador was challenged to his face — and he has not yet said anything about it.
Why this matters
An ambassador's name carries weight that a private tour operator's does not. When a program is associated with the serving US envoy — his invitation, a museum's funding — the messages displayed on its vehicles read, fairly or not, as semi-official. That is why the unanswered questions here are institutional rather than personal: whether embassy-linked programs vet what is displayed on them, and whether anyone will say who was responsible for these stickers. It is also why the location matters. The Muslim Quarter is not a neutral backdrop; a slogan about sending people "back" lands differently on a street whose residents live with an ongoing political conflict than it would on a highway in Ohio. Context is not an editorial leaning — it is the reason a bus sticker became an international news story at all.
There is a second, quieter significance. The encounter was accidental — a congresswoman on a personal trip, an ambassador on a tour stop, a photographer who happened to be present. In an era of arranged photo opportunities, this one was arranged by no one, which is why both principals' camps have had to react to a scene neither controlled. Omar's camp chose to confirm and explain. Huckabee's has, so far, chosen silence. Both are strategies, and the story will be shaped by which one holds.
What happens next
The open questions are specific, and each has an owner. Whether Huckabee or the embassy addresses the episode publicly; whether the Friends of Zion Museum responds to the outstanding requests for comment; whether anyone identifies who produced and applied the stickers; and whether the House Ethics Committee-approved travel that put Omar and Meeks in Israel produces any formal follow-up. Until at least one of those is answered, the record of this encounter remains a photographed bus, a witness who peeled the stickers off it, a spokesperson's confirmation — and an ambassador's silence.
Related coverage: Trump administration opens an investigation into Ilhan Omar's citizenship · Rubio presses Israel to crack down on settler violence in the West Bank.
Sources
- FastCompany (Oct 16, 2026), investigation by Jesús Alvarado: American tourists toured Israel on a program associated with Ambassador Mike Huckabee, who invited them under a program funded by the Friends of Zion Museum; the tour bus (and reportedly a second bus) carried window and hood stickers reading "Make Israel Great," "Israel First" and "Send them back"; the bus stopped in Jerusalem's Muslim Quarter, where Rep. Ilhan Omar — in Israel on a personal trip — confronted Huckabee directly; witness Shai Farkash, co-operator of the Kulna Jerusalem cultural center, quoted on the confrontation and said he removed the stickers; Omar spokesperson Jacklyn Rogers confirmed the confrontation and its motive; photographer Andrew Adams said the stickers were tolerated by the tourists, "not necessarily forced on them"; Huckabee has not publicly commented; the Friends of Zion Museum has not responded to requests for comment; Omar and Rep. Meeks were in Israel with the approval of the House Ethics Committee.
- The Wirecutter (Aug 2025): documented the same sticker slogans on buses in Israel and spoke with the stickers' designer, who referred questions to travel agents.
- The Age of Roosevelt (Substack, campaign reporting): alleged that Huckabee pushed the allied group to tour the Muslim Quarter — carried as an attributed allegation; who chose the route is not established by the verified reporting.