A significant battle is shaping up in Pittsburgh’s congressional primary May 17 between establishment Democrat Steve Irwin, who has ties to the Israel lobby, and progressive Democrats Summer Lee and Jerry Dickinson. We’ve already mentioned Dickinson’s balancing act on Israel.
Summer Lee, a state legislator and former organizer, who is endorsed by Bernie Sanders, on Monday appeared at a pro-Israel organization, the Pittsburgh Jewish Federation, and answered questions about Israel. The impressive thing about Lee’s appearance is that she refused to back down on Palestinian rights during a round of pro-Israel questions.
She backed the Iran deal and supported conditioning aid to Israel over home demolitions and child detention. She did not rule out the idea that Israel is an apartheid state, suggesting that was the perspective of her Palestinian constituents. And while she did not endorse the BDS campaign, she likened it to the Black Lives Matter protests in the U.S.
Lee also attacked the claim that Israel always has a right to defend itself. Expanding on a tweet from last May’s Gaza onslaught in which she said that Israel has no such right when it is committing “undeniable atrocities on a marginalized population,” Lee said that American politicians should have condemned Israel’s actions, including the police storming of Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem that helped detonate the hostilities.
Here are some excerpts of Lee’s answers to questions from an (unidentified) official of the Jewish Federation who instructed Lee that about 90 percent of American Jews are pro-Israel and many vote on that basis.
Lee praised the Iran deal as “one of our strongest pieces… we need to prioritize the diplomatic approach… We need to prioritize the safety and security of that region…”
Asked if she believes “Israel should exist as a Jewish and democratic state,” Lee said it does.
Absolutely I do. What’s more is that I also understand and truly believe the need that we have for Jewish folks globally to have a safe haven, to have a refuge and a place to be safe.
Lee was questioned about her criticism of Israel’s actions last May during a Palestinian uprising, when she likened its self-defense claim to that of George Zimmerman, 28, the security officer who killed 14-year-old Trayvon Martin in Florida in 2012. At the time, Lee tweeted: “When I hear American pols use the refrain ‘Israel has the right to defend itself’ in response to undeniable atrocities on a marginalized pop, I can’t help but think of how the west has always justified indiscriminate & disproportionate force & power on weakened & marginalized ppl.”
During the q-and-a three nights ago, Lee said:
It’s the only time that I’ve actually ever tweeted about Israel and Palestine at all… What… I was seeing, as a black woman, somebody who has also experienced oppression– we as black folks have experienced global oppression– and really looking at the parallels and being startled. That was I believe a year ago, also during Ramadan, where we saw a mosque being raided. Those are folks who are in their most vulnerable point and they’re holding on, praying and breaking fast, and that was an internationally-recognized event [police had stormed al-Aqsa mosque in occupied Jerusalem] that happened that was an escalation unlike we had seen, and what I heard and what I continue to hear was instead of a cryout to say that was not OK… instead what I saw were American politicians rushing to use that phrase that Israel has a right to defend itself. The question was what were they defending themselves against at that moment and I think that that was specifically what that tweet was speaking about. When we are saying that a powerful entity has a right to defend itself, when no one had done anything needing a defense, that was the parallel that was drawn between Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman who instigated it and then saying he had a right to defend himself. And that’s what I was seeing as a black woman and recognizing that parallel and the trauma that comes with it.
Lee then said she would vote for Iron Dome funding– money to a missile defense system that Israel has, and Palestinians in occupied territory do not have. (Members of the Squad in Congress held up that funding last September, briefly.)
Asked about BDS– the international boycott, divestment, and sanctions campaign targeting Israel, and opposed by the Israel lobby — Lee said she doesn’t support it but likened it to the Black Lives Matter protests.
It’s not a movement that I am personally part of but as a legislator and someone who has a law degree… I’m concerned by efforts to criminalize a tactic that is a peaceful protest, and again that’s rooted in my experience as a black woman in America. There are often times where we have to protest and we have to question what our government is doing and policies that our government is implementing, or actions that our government has taken against black folks. I think immediately about the Black Lives Matter movement and how we have after decades and decades of petitioning our government to really prioritize black lives and take action to address police violence… we’ve never seen any change on that.. That has been the only recourse that we had. So I am somebody who firmly believes in peaceful protest where it is necessary so while it may not be a movement that I am a part of, I would hesitate on those efforts to criminalize it and make it illegal.
Here is Lee on conditioning aid. She said that all U.S. aid should be conditioned on human rights compliance. And that conditioning aid to Israel was essential to a “peaceful resolution” of the conflict.
That means we have to insure that we protect against illegal annexation of Palestinians lands, demolition of Palestinian homes, expansions into settlements, it means we have to insure against the detention of children. I think that those are all very reasonable things that we should be holding our partners, our allies accountable to.
Lee called the “apartheid state” question a “loaded” question and said she didn’t know–
“I don’t necessarily know that I know the answer to that. … I am not as well versed in the intricacies of that–“
before she moved on to the idea that she is a “listening partner” to both Palestinians and Israel advocates in her community as a state legislator.
I am very proud of the relationships I’ve built here in our Jewish communities and I’m also very proud of the relationship I’m building in the Palestinian communities and listening to those stories, those concerns… I think it’s important hat we do not lose the need to protect and stand up for Palestinians. We have to balance the need to insure that Jewish folks, that the state of Israel is protected and secure, that there is peace in that region…
This will get interesting, because Steve Irwin has run a sharply negative campaign against Summer Lee and played the pro-Israel card. Lately he issued a statement standing with Israel during terrorist attacks. He also brags about his involvement with the ADL, a rightwing pro-Israel org, and says that his mother worked for a rabbi.
I must say she is one gutsy lady….having the spine to stand up to the onslaught of attacks she is sure to face from the Israeli lobbies like AIPAC, and pro Israel groups like the ADL, apologists, and the usual vicious zionist supporters, who are trained to attack anyone who speaks out, and exercises their right to free speech. Anything to shut them up from criticizing Israel’s crimes.
If only there were others like her.
She may not win. But it’s a wonderful change that politicians are no longer afraid to criticize Israel. A few of them. But maybe the tipping point is coming soon.