‘I don’t call Israel an apartheid state’: Bowman engages with protesters at Jewish outreach event
Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) on June 8, 2022. Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images
By Jacob Kornbluh November 6, 2023
The meeting Rep. Jamaal Bowman called to assuage Jewish constituents’ concerns about his stance on the Israel-Hamas war did not go as he hoped. Just minutes before the Monday gathering at Calvary Baptist Church in White Plains, New York, was set to start, its pastor withdrew his sponsorship of the event. As a result, the meeting had to be hastily relocated to Bowman’s district office.
A local reporter heard Pastor Erwin Lee Trollinger, Jr., met by protesters at his church, say that he didn’t want to anger members of his congregation who are supportive of Israel.
“The initial location switch was sparked by a protester confronting the pastor of the church,” Sarah Iddrissu, Bowman’s chief of staff, said. “Out of an abundance of caution for the safety of the church community,” she said, Bowman moved the meeting to his district office, which is also in White Plains.
The event, titled “Healing breakfast: Fighting antisemitism and hate,” was initially scheduled to take place at Bowman’s district office, but was moved to the church over the weekend because the office wasn’t big enough to fit all who wanted to attend, his office said in an email.
But several people showed up at the church to protest against Bowman and his recent comments about Israel’s military campaign against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, which they felt minimized the suffering and security needs of Israelis and Jews. “Bowman does not protect our Jewish students,” read one poster. Another accused the congressman of hosting the meeting as a “PR stunt.”
For several minutes Bowman — who represents most of Westchester County, just north of New York City, and a small piece of The Bronx — engaged with the protesters.
“What if members of your community lynched, raped, murdered and kidnapped — including nine-months-old babies, three-year-old toddlers, parents and moms, and you are calling for some weird ceasefire that isn’t going to accomplish anything,” Guy Baron, a resident of Scarsdale, asked Bowman, according to a video shared by a reporter on the scene. Baron, according to another protester who declined to give his name for fear of backlash, had draped an Israeli flag around his neck and wanted to enter the church, but got into a confrontation at the door and began cursing. That incident, the protester said, helped convince Trollinger that the meeting should not take place at his church.
One protester said the pastor called the police and told them that they didn’t have the right to be there.
Another woman challenged Bowman for voting against a resolution that expressed U.S. support for Israel “as it defends itself against the barbaric war launched by Hamas” and other terrorist groups and one that called out antisemitism on college campuses. “Westchester is 15% Jewish,” she said. “You are not representing our interests when you vote against resolutions like that.”
Bowman pushed back, saying no one should ever suggest that he is “OK with the killing of Jews,” calling the criticism “insane.”
“I don’t call Israel an apartheid state,” he added. “Look at my words. Having said that, there have been organizations that have referred to it as an apartheid state, not me.” He further explained that the protesters “have to understand” that the Jewish community is a diverse community, “There are people who believe differently than what you just said.”
Iddrissu said Bowman invited the protesters to join the event and that most of them took the invitation and “participated in the conversation in a meaningful way.”
“May this be an example of how we can all continue to work hard to build difficult bridges,” she added.
National and local pressure
Bowman, 47, has faced in recent weeks opposition both locally and nationally for his stance on the Israel-Hamas war. Following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, Bowman issued a strong condemnation of the terrorist group and denounced those local progressive activists who celebrated the attacks. But Bowman also joined a number of his colleagues to call for an immediate ceasefire. According to Hamas, more than 10,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Israel began to retaliate for the Oct. 7 attack.
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s affiliated United Democracy Project super PAC launched last week a six-figure advertisement campaign against Bowman, among a number of House members, for his vote on the non-binding House resolution against Hamas. The group spent $28 million in highly competitive Democratic primaries in the 2022 elections.
A group of more than 40 rabbis affiliated with the Westchester Board of Rabbis signed a statement expressing “frustration and anger” over the congressman’s positions on Israel and called on him “to exercise better leadership.”
Additionally, centrist Democrats, Jewish activists and AIPAC have mounted a campaign to encourage George Latimer, Westchester’s popular county executive, to challenge Bowman in next year’s primary — and he has indicated that he’s considering it. Latimer is set to lead a solidarity mission to Israel later this month.
Jewish activists, calling themselves “Jews for Jamaal,” countered that effort in an open letter to Latimer, discouraging him from running. “A primary between the two of you would be needlessly wasteful and terribly divisive,” the signatories wrote, “especially at a time when all Democrats need to stand united against the rise of MAGA demagogues and authoritarianism.”
Bowman is aggressively pushing back against his critics. In a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, the incumbent noted that he had been in daily contact with Jewish constituents “and they do not want their pain exploited by the right wing to justify even more civilian deaths.” In an email to constituents over the weekend, Bowman went to great lengths to clarify his position. He wrote that he supports Israel’s right to defend itself and that his call for a ceasefire includes the release of all the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.
At the same time, Bowman added that “as horrific as Oct 7 was, those events also did not occur in vacuum.”
Some local Jewish leaders rejected the outreach. Rabbi Evan Hoffman, who leads the Westchester Board of Rabbis, described the meeting as “laughable” and said that local relationships with the congressman had deteriorated significantly. Others raised eyebrows that the congressman chose a church as a venue for meeting with members of the Jewish community.
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s affiliated United Democracy Project super PAC launched an advertisement campaign against Bowman, among a number of House members, for his vote on the House resolution against Hamas. https://t.co/GcwyEkhHtR pic.twitter.com/2CCG8xAYhW
Editors update: This article was corrected to state that the protesters were not Jewish students.
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