Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

WATCH: Former Sanders Staffer Simone Zimmerman “Outraged” At Israel Travel Ban

Simone Zimmerman, briefly the Jewish outreach coordinator to Bernie Sanders, blasted Israel’s new travel ban targeting supporters of the Boycott, Divest and Sanction movement.

“I’m outraged there’s a chance I might not be allowed into this country,” Zimmerman said in a video by Israeli daily Haaretz. It has been shared 1,000 times.

Zimmerman, an activist was briefly Jewish outreach coordinator for the Bernie Sanders Presidential campaign, but lost her position after a Facebook post surfaced in which she swore at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and called him “arrogant, deceptive, cynical.”

The travel restrictions, passed in early March, instruct Israeli border officials to deny entry to travelers who “has called for a boycott of Israel in any public media or who committed to participate in such a boycott.”

In her criticism of the travel restriction, Zimmerman joins a chorus of American Jews.

“I’m not a member of BDS movement, but I believe that BDS is a legitimate, non-violent tactic and I personally support economic and diplomatic action and pressure against the occupation,” she said.

She said it will be “devastating” if she is not let into Israel, and urged Jewish Americans to be “outraged that this law is going to most likely disproportionately affect Palestinians and other Arab and Muslim folks.”

Contact Daniella Cheslow at [email protected].

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.