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

Image by Haaretz

By Daniella Cheslow March 15, 2017

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 cheslow@forward.com.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO