On May 15, Palestinians and their supporters around the world will mark Nakba Day, commemorating 75 years since the “catastrophe” of Israel’s establishment.
Over the years, Nakba Day events have devolved into hate-fests against Israel and against Jews and have offered platforms for broadsides against Israel’s very right to exist.
Nakba Day in the US Capitol
Member of Congress Rashida Tlaib (D-Michigan), whose deep hostility to Israel has exposed her to charges of antisemitism, attempted to reserve the auditorium of the Capitol Visitor Center for a Nakba Day event this past Wednesday, seeking to “uplift the experiences of Palestinians who underwent the Nakba and educate members of Congress and their staff about this history and the ongoing Nakba to which Israel continues to subject Palestinians.”
She was thwarted by Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-California), who blocked the event. “It’s wrong for members of Congress to traffic in antisemitic tropes about Israel,” he said. “Instead, I will host a bipartisan discussion to honor the 75th anniversary of the US-Israel relationship.”
ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt had written to McCarthy, expressing concern about Tlaib’s event and calling for scrutiny to ensure that no events taking place under congressional auspices are used to promote hate. Greenblatt drew McCarthy’s attention to some of the event’s cosponsors, who have trafficked in antisemitism, expressed support for terrorists and called for boycotts of Zionist Jews – which is to say, the overwhelming majority of Jews everywhere.
REP. RASHIDA TLAIB (D-Michigan) speaks at a climate rally in Iowa in January. (credit: SCOTT MORGAN/REUTERS)Happily for Tlaib, she found a savior in Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), who offered her the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee’s hearing room, which he controls as the committee’s chair. The room is located in a Senate office building, which puts it outside McCarthy’s purview.
Greenblatt called Sanders’s move “disgraceful.” He’s right.
Sanders has publicly expressed his pride in his Jewish identity and has even described himself as “pro-Israel.” For a Jewish legislator – or any legislator – to offer a platform for a manifestly anti-Israel event sponsored by groups tainted by antisemitism isn’t just disgraceful. It’s shocking.
There ought to be room for thoughtful, fact-based discussion of the circumstances of Israel’s birth and the events that surrounded its establishment. That is not what Nakba Day is about.
Not about thoughtful discussion
Last year alone, according to the ADL, Nakba Day events in the United States featured speakers who openly and explicitly called for violent attacks on Israelis, participants who waved the flags of designated terror groups and chants of “intifada” – that is, calls for a campaign of violence against Israeli Jews.
It is unclear which would be worse: if Sanders knew what he was enabling or if he didn’t. What is clear is that he has a major blind spot when it comes to close associates who have been accused of antisemitism, which speaks to a broader problem in progressive politics in America.
Partisan politics should never get in the way of doing what is right. Rashida Tlaib, Linda Sarsour and Ilhan Omar may be rising stars in the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, but they are also deeply controversial figures who each have a history of engaging in rhetoric regarded by the Jewish community as antisemitic.
Sanders should be distancing himself from them and denouncing them publicly. Instead, he has embraced their endorsement and has reciprocated in kind, even going so far as to grant his imprimatur to an event centered on unadulterated hostility to Israel and organized by groups accused of antisemitism. That an elder statesman of the American Left is conducting himself in this way should trouble all Americans.
The Nakba Day debacle should signify a watershed moment in the conversation surrounding Israel in America. There should be no place in the halls of power for rhetoric that characterizes the establishment of the State of Israel – a staunch ally of the United States that is supported by the overwhelming majority of Americans of both parties – as a “catastrophe.” Americans should expect better from their elected officials, and the officials themselves should have the integrity to stand against hateful and incendiary rhetoric, even when going along with it may appear to be politically expedient.
We applaud the lawmakers, both Democratic and Republican, who have spoken out against Wednesday’s event and hope their voices win out in the end.
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