The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), the oldest pro-Israel organization in the U.S., is slamming Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) for hosting an antisemitic event commemorating the so-called Palestinian “Nakba.”
The “Nakba,” or “Catatsrophe,” is an annual observance by Palestinians that denies the right of the State of Israel to exist. The term refers to the defeat in 1948 of the Palestinians and other Arab forces who tried to crush the newly-formed Jewish state as it declared independence. They failed, and about 700,000 Palestinians fled as refugees.
Last week, Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) canceled a “Nakba” event planned in the Capitol by radical Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) to mark the 75th anniversary of the war. Sanders then offered Tlaib and her supporters the use of a conference room in the Senate to hold their event.
ZOA President Morton Klein issued a statement on Thursday slamming Sanders:
Yesterday, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) demonstrated that he was a moral giant and a great friend of the Jewish state and the Jewish people by blocking Jew-hating groups from holding an antisemitic “Nakba 75” event featuring Israelophobic Jew-haters Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Cori Bush (D-MO) at the Capitol Visitor Center. Deplorably, socialist extremist Senator Bernie Sanders (I/D-VT) then acted immorally by hosting Tlaib and other Jew-haters’ libelous “Nakba 75” event in a U.S. Senate Committee room. Rashida Tlaib appeared with fellow “Squad” Jew-hater Cori Bush to libel and bash Jews and the Jewish state.
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Senate Majority Leader Schumer did nothing to stop this despicable antisemitic spectacle, which abused taxpayer-funded Senate committee space, and says that he didn’t know about it. ZOA strongly urges Senator Schumer to at least condemn the Nakba 75 event after the fact.
“Nakba 75” promotes the sick, twisted, hateful, genocidal concept that it is a “catastrophe” that Israel has managed to survive, and that the Arabs failed to totally destroy Israel’s Jewish population and homeland in 1948 or in the 75 years since then. By hosting this event, Sanders sickeningly (once again) helped those that seek to wipe Israel and every Jew (including himself) off the map. (Sanders’ anti-Israel record also includes proudly announcing on his website that he was attempting to block weapons sales to Israel – during the very same week in May 2021 when Hamas shot 4,600 rockets at Israeli civilians – and making wildly-inflated claims about “innocent” Palestinian casualties in Gaza.)
Klein urged that Tlaib and Sanders, who also happens to be Jewish, be removed from their congressional committees for hosting the antisemitic event.