Bernie Sanders posts video citing ‘apartheid-like’ conditions for Palestinians
In campaign clip, supporter compares presidential candidate’s past condemnation of South Africa’s old racist regime to his current view of Israeli policies
WASHINGTON — Bernie Sanders posted a campaign video with a supporter praising him for condemning “apartheid-like” conditions among Palestinians.
“He spoke out against apartheid in South Africa when crazily that was an unpopular thing to do and even today he speaks out against apartheid-like conditions in Palestine even though it’s not popular,” Shaun King said in the video posted Monday on the presidential campaign’s Facebook page.
King, a columnist and activist, spoke at the formal launch of Sanders’ campaign on March 2. The video breaks away from King’s speech to a highlighted online CNN headline, “Bernie Sanders smashes the Israel status quo.”
The CNN report, from April 2016, covered comments Sanders made about the US-Israel relationship in which he called on Washington to stop being “one-sided” in its position regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. At the time Sanders was competing with Hilary Clinton to win the Democratic nomination for president.
Shaun King: I Don't Care When Trump Calls Bernie "Crazy"
"I don't care when [Trump] calls him "Crazy Bernie." I was in California when Bernie went to Disneyland and literally said that he did not think that Mickey Mouse and Goofy approved of Disney not paying their workers a living wage. You gotta be a little crazy to do that." – Shaun King, civil rights activist.
Posted by Bernie Sanders on Monday, March 18, 2019
Israel has long bristled at use of the term “apartheid” to describe its policies toward the Palestinians, and officials regularly point out differences between South Africa’s former policies and Israel’s, dismissing use of the word as calumny meant to defame the Jewish state.
Sanders, an Independent of Vermont, has been among the Senate’s most trenchant Israel critics, releasing multiple videos last year decrying Israel’s use of lethal weapons to end protests and riots on the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel.
Sanders was the first Jewish candidate to win major nominating contests when he ran for the Democratic nomination in 2016.
