Georgia Dem Senate candidate signed letter comparing Israel to apartheid South Africa
A 2019 letter that compared the Israeli occupation of the West Bank to apartheid South Africa has resurfaced because it was signed by Rev. Raphael Warnock, a Democratic candidate for Senate in Georgia.
Yesterday a Jewish Insider article revisited the statement, which was published on website of the National Council of Churches and coincided with a delegation of Christian faith leaders visiting Israel and Palestine. “We came as representatives of African American communities; as descendants of those who survived slavery, Jim Crow and who work now to dismantle the new Jim Crow of mass incarceration and militarization of police in our communities; and we came as representatives of the South African people who lived through the indignity of over 300 years of dehumanizing dispossession, colonialism, segregation and apartheid,” reads a portion of the statement.
The statement continues:
We saw the patterns that seem to have been borrowed and perfected from other previous oppressive regimes:
i. The ever-present physical walls that wall in Palestinians in a political wall reminiscent of the Berlin Wall.
ii. Roads built through occupied Palestinian villages, on which Palestinians are not permitted to drive; and homes and families divided by walls and barriers.
iii. The heavy militarization of the West Bank, reminiscent of the military occupation of Namibia by apartheid South Africa.
iv. The laws of segregation that allow one thing for the Jewish people and another for the Palestinians; we saw evidence of forced removals; homes abandoned, olive trees uprooted or confiscated and taken over, shops and businesses bolted with doors welded to close out any commercial activities.
The Progressive National Baptist Convention released the same statement at the time, but added resolutions calling on the United States to end military aid to Israel.
In a statement to Jewish Insider, spokesperson for Warnock attempted to distance the candidate from the letter. “Reverend Warnock has deep respect for the invaluable relationship the United States has with Israel and how Georgia continues to benefit from that friendship,” he said. “The reservations he has expressed about settlement activity do not change his strong support for Israel and belief in its security — which is exactly why he opposes ending direct military aid to such a strong ally. Reverend Warnock is proud to be a part of interfaith communities that model respect and work to seek unity instead of division, he believes people of faith working together is essential to making progress on the issues important to our families, from access to affordable health care to creating a peaceful and secure world.”
Warnock won a special election for the Senate seat this week, but his percentage means that he’ll have to run against GOP incumbent Kelly Loeffler this January.
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