Jamaal Bowman Accuses Israel Of Racism. Critics Fire Back.
Speaking on MSNBC, Bowman said, “So we’ve been using a lot of rhetoric about a two-state solution for decades, and when I went there I saw that we are nowhere near a two-state-solution. Myself, as a sitting member of Congress, could not walk through certain checkpoints in the West Bank because I wasn’t Jewish.”
New York Democrat Rep. Ritchie Torres, a staunch supporter of Israel,
fired back at Bowman, “Jewish checkpoints are as fictional as Jewish space lasers,” prompting leftist J Street president Jeremy Ben Ami to
chime in, “I led the trip with @JamaalBowmanNY. It’s a fact: there are checkpoints in Hebron where security separates who can walk where by religion. Other checkpoints keep roads ‘sterile’ of Palestinians. I’ve been there dozens of times. Join me.”
Podcast host Noam Blum then
stated bluntly of Ben Ami, “He’s lying. The separation is between Palestinian and Israeli (which includes Israeli Muslims) and foreigners,” then cited a
detailed report from Honest Reporting that debunked the charge of “Jews-only roads” in the disputed territories, noting that it was part of the “apartheid” label anti-Semites use to vilify Israel.
Michael Totten explained after antisemitic journalist Helen Thomas had made the charge, “Such roads don’t exist. The roads she’s referring to in the West Bank are Israeli, and they’re not just for Jews. Israeli Arabs can drive on them, and so can non-Jewish foreigners, including Arab and Muslim foreigners. Palestinians were once able to drive on them but have not been allowed to do so since the second intifada, when suicide bombers used them to penetrate Tel Aviv and Jerusalem in order to massacre people.”