Senator Bernie Sanders said Israel’s treatment of Gaza is “ethnic cleansing,” calling out Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday.
On CNNs “State of the Union,” Sanders said that the Prime Minister should be held responsible for the staggering death toll and the displacement of Palestinians the conflict has caused.
When asked about the country-wide pro-Palestine protests that have taken over numerous college campuses, and what he thought of Rep, Ilhan Omar’s remarks last week at Columbia University where her daughter was suspended, he said he understood what Omar communicated.
Columbia University has had national attention after hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters were arrested earlier this month. CNN played a clip of Omar’s comments when she visited campus.
“I think it is really unfortunate that people don’t care about the fact that all Jewish kids should be kept safe, and that we should not have to tolerate antisemitism or bigotry for all Jewish students, whether they are pro-genocide or anti-genocide,” she said.
“What I think the essential point that Ilhan made is that we do not want to see antisemitism in this country,” Sanders said. “And I think the word genocide is something that is being determined by the International Court of Justice.”
Sanders added that there is no doubt about what Netanyahu is doing: “displacing 80% of the population in Gaza — is ethnic cleansing.”
Sanders has repeatedly criticized Netanyahu for the ongoing war in Gaza, and has opposed more U.S. funding to Israel. He also re-upped his calls for an end to U.S. funding to Israel’s actions in Gaza.
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