Leftwing Israeli Lawmaker Slammed For Joining Anti-AIPAC Protests
Leftwing Israeli parliament member Tamar Zandberg is facing blowback in Israel for appearing at a protest against the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
Zandberg, a lawmaker with the leftwing Meretz party, spoke to If Not Now, the anti-occupation group that organized a large demonstration outside of AIPAC’s annual policy conference in Washington, DC on March 26.
Member of Knesset Tamar Zandberg came outside to be with the #JewishResistance. Tamar, thank you for standing with IfNotNow. pic.twitter.com/P9v2xKmgOW
— IfNotNow (@IfNotNowOrg) March 26, 2017
Zandberg’s participation in the protest against the conference drew the ire of several Israeli commentators and news sites.
Israel’s Channel 20 ran an online story on Zandberg’s participation in “anti-Israel” protests.
Mida, a center-right online political magazine, proclaimed that there is “no limit to shame” in the fact that Zandberg spoke to supporters of the movement to boycott, divest from and sanction Israel, known as BDS. (In fact, If Not Now has no position on BDS).
And The Shadow, a right wing Israeli rapper, made a profanity-laced video on Zandberg’s participation.
Zandberg wrote on Facebook that the criticism was a sign that she did something right. For “confused friends,” she wrote that she is “against the occupation and with Israel.”
Zandberg appears on a list of speakers at AIPAC’s conference, along with several other parliament members.
Contact Naomi Zeveloff at zeveloff@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.
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