Top Democrat Blasts Jewish Group Staging Capitol Protest: ‘Seeks to End Israel As A Jewish & Democratic State’
AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana
Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), the ranking member of the powerful House Judiciary Committee, pulled no punches on Wednesday blasting the group Jewish Voice For Peace ahead of their large protest at the U.S. Capitol.
Nadler wrote on Twitter, “Many have asked me ‘who is Jewish Voice for Peace?’ Their website says they are “proud to be a part of the global, Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement,” which, by its founder’s admission & tenets, seeks to end Israel as a Jewish & democratic state.”
Pro-Palestinian groups If Not Now and Jewish Voice for Peace held a large protest outside the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday before protesters entered the Capitol complex and many were arrested.
“A group of protesters are demonstrating inside the Cannon Rotunda. Demonstrations are not allowed inside Congressional Building,” The Capitol Police warned on Twitter, eventually adding:
We warned the protestors to stop demonstrating and when they did not comply we began arresting them.
Arrests in the Canon Rotunda and the rolling road closures are ongoing. Amongst these arrests, three people have been arrested and charged with Assault on a Police Officer during processing.
The Anti-Defamation League’s description of Jewish Voice for Peace comports largely with Nadler’s tweet. “Jewish Voice for Peace is a radical anti-Israel activist group that advocates for a complete economic, cultural and academic boycott of the state of Israel,” wrote the ADL, adding:
JVP rejects the view that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a tragic dispute over land which has been perpetuated by a cycle of violence, fear, and distrust on both sides, in favor of the belief that Israeli policies and actions are motivated by deeply rooted Jewish racial chauvinism and religious supremacism.
JVP considers supporters of Israel, or even critics of Israel who do not hew to JVP’s own extreme views, to be complicit in Israel’s purported acts of racist oppression of Palestinians.
