WATCH: Former Sanders Staffer Simone Zimmerman “Outraged” At Israel Travel Ban
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
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].
Why I became the Forward’s Editor-in-Chief
You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.
And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
