Sanders, Feinstein, Warren Urge Israel Not To Demolish Palestinian Villages

Bernie Sanders protesting the furlough of federal workers, October 2013 Image by Getty Images

By JTA November 30, 2017

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Ten Democratic senators, among them four Jews, wrote Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, urging him not to demolish Palestinian villages that Israel has deemed unauthorized.

“We have long championed a two-state solution as a just resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” said the letter, initiated by Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. “Yet, your government’s efforts to forcibly evict entire Palestinian communities and expand settlements throughout the West Bank not only directly imperil a two-state solution, but we believe also endanger Israel’s future as a Jewish democracy.”

Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman has said Israel plans to demolish Susiya, a small village near Hebron, and Khan al-Ahmar, a Bedouin village near the West Bank settlement of Maaleh Adumim, parallel to plans to demolish unauthorized West Bank Jewish settlements.

The letter comes a month or so after J Street, the liberal Jewish Middle East policy group, launched with its student affiliate, J Street U, a campaign to prevent the demolition of Palestinian homes.

“We welcome [the letter] as a sign that top lawmakers are increasingly speaking out about alarming actions by the Israeli government that undermine the two-state solution and endanger Israel’s future as a democratic homeland for the Jewish people,” J Street said in a statement.

Also signing the letter were: Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., Dick Durbin, D-Ill., Tom Carper, D-Del., Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., Al Franken, D-Minn., Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Jeff Merkley, D-Ore.and Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii. Schatz and Franken, like Feinstein and Sanders, are Jewish.

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