Ed Markey’s Supporters Are Furious About His Support for Israel

Printed from: https://newbostonpost.com/2021/05/14/ed-markeys-supporters-are-furious-about-his-support-for-israel/

U.S. Senator Ed Markey (D-Massachusetts) is one of the most left-wing members of the United States Congress and yet, many of his left-of-center supporters are unhappy with a recent statement he made.

In the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Markey supports the State of Israel, to the dismay of some. As of Thursday morning, more than 450 people and organizations had signed a petition calling on Markey to stand with the Palestinian people.

It comes in response to a three-tweet statement he made on Tuesday this week about the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Gaza Strip. In it, Markey said:

 

Palestinians and Israelis deserve peace and safety. The violence must stop and all sides must protect innocent civilians. The Biden Administration should continue being fully engaged to help de-escalate this moment. Plans to force Palestinians from their homes and the raid on Al-Aqsa Mosque have contributed to a spiral of violence that must be de-escalated before more innocent people are hurt and killed. Israel has the right to defend itself from indiscriminate rocket attacks and no one should fear being forcefully evicted from their homes. We need peace.

 

The petition criticizing Markey for the pro-Israeli-defense tweet says that the people who signed onto it made hundreds of thousands of telephone calls, raised millions of dollars, and spent “years of our lives” to re-elect Markey to the U.S. Senate in 2020 because they believed in the message he stood for. Markey’s attractive policy positions for the signers included proposals such as the Green New Deal, Medicare-for-All, nuclear disarmament, and criminal justice reform.

The petition notes that standing with Israel in this conflict is not a part of that progressive vision. 

“As the young people, organizers, and advocates who are responsible for Senator Markey’s victory, we are upset and disappointed by his recent statement on Israel’s illegal occupation and ethnic cleansing of Palestine,” petition organizers wrote. “He followed in the footsteps of Mitt Romney and Donald Trump by saying it’s a ‘both sides’ issue, which ignores the current and historical power imbalance between Israel and Palestine — and couldn’t be farther from the truth. Senator Markey’s refusal to support justice in Palestine is antithetical to the Green New Deal and the progressive movement that won him re-election.”

The petition also includes a list of commands for the senator. They tell him to:

 

Demand a serious Congressional investigation of the role of US arms and funding in the violent Israeli repression and displacement of Palestinians in Occupied Jerusalem and the West Bank, along with the long-standing siege and bombing of Gaza;

Demand application of existing US arms export regulations to stop the deployment of US weapons against civilians in Gaza and elsewhere, which constitutes a flagrant violation of human rights standards and an evident war crime contrary to US law;

Compose and promote a Senate initiative similar to the House letter circulated by Reps. Newman and Pocan opposing Israeli displacement of Palestinians from neighborhoods of Jerusalem;

Introduce a Senate version of H.R. 2590 Defending the Human Rights of Palestinian Children and Families Living Under Israeli Military Occupation Act.

 

Signees of the letter include left-of-center organizations Massachusetts Peace Action, the Sunrise Movement, Jewish Voice for Peace — Boston, and IfNotNow Boston. A pair of left-of-center politicians have signed it as well:  state Representative Erika Uyterhoeven (D-Somerville) and Cambridge city councilor Jivan Sobrinho-Wheeler.

Others who signed onto it include field organizers for his campaign, volunteers, interns, donors, and video editors, among others.

Massachusetts Peace Action provided NewBostonPost with a comment on the matter late Thursday morning.

“For decades, it has been bipartisan US policy to support the Israeli military occupation of the Palestinian people,” Mass Peace Action organizer Amar Ahmad wrote in an email message on behalf of the organization. “The occupation dehumanizes Palestinians while denying them freedom and dignity. We campaigned and worked hard to re-elect Senator Markey, and were disappointed in his statement which took a “both-sides” approach rather than putting the onus on Israel for being the aggressor and occupier, and the US for providing financial and political support to the Israeli occupation.”

 

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