Bernie Sanders: Criticizing the Israeli Gov’t is not anti-Semitic & Palestinians Deserve Rights
US Democratic
candidate and presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders has said that criticising
Israeli government policy is not anti-Semitic. Speaking at a town
hall meeting in the state of New Hampshire, on the US’ east coast,
Sanders told the crowd that “as somebody who is proudly
Jewish”, to be critical of a right-wing government led by Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “is not to be anti-Semitic”.
https://www.juancole.com/2019/08/sanders-criticizing-palestinians.html
Sander’s comment came
in response to a question from one audience member who described herself as
previously “feeling really let down by politicians who only represent a Jewish
voice that is completely uncritical of Israel” and as belonging to “a
generation which understands that opposition to the [Israeli] occupation [of
Palestinian territories] is a Jewish moral imperative”.
Asking Sanders
directly “why does it matter to you to fight to end the occupation,” the
Vermont Senator responded: All that I have ever
said about this issue is that US foreign policy should be even-handed. We
respect Israel. Israel has every right in the world to live in peace and
security, but so do the Palestinian people... read more: