Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) President Morton A. Klein and ZOA Chair Mark Levenson, Esq. released the following statement:
The ZOA congratulates Senator Kamala Harris on her nomination to become the Democratic Party’s vice presidential candidate. However, we are very concerned about Sen. Harris’ troubling positions on key issues affecting America, Israel, and the Jewish people, including Jewish students on college campuses who are the victims of antisemitism. We strongly urge Senator Harris to promptly and publicly reverse her positions on these issues:
(1) Sen. Kamala Harris wants to reinstate the catastrophic deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran which allows a path to nuclear weapons. The deal endangers Israel, America and the entire world. ZOA strongly urges Ms. Harris to reverse course, and to oppose reinstatement of the Iran deal.
(2) Sen. Harris issued a public statement OPPOSING Israel’s rightful extension of Israeli law over Judea and Samaria. Harris’ statement wrongly used the term “annexation” – thereby falsely implying that sovereign Jewish lands are the sovereign lands of another entity. Harris’ statement also maligned the democratically elected Israeli government by stating that Israel’s exercise of her rights would “call into question this Israeli Government’s commitment to shared values of democracy and self-determination.” ZOA strongly urges Harris to publicly acknowledge and stop attempting to interfere with Israel’s sovereign rights, guaranteed under international law, including U.S. treaty obligations, to extend Israeli law over Judea and Samaria.
(3) Sen. Harris refused to condemn Rep. Ilhan Omar’s antisemitism and Israel-hatred – and instead expressed concern for Omar’s safety – and not for the safety of American and Israeli Jews impacted by Ilhan Omar’s hateful attacks. ZOA urges Ms. Harris to clearly condemn the Jew-hatred and Israel-hatred expressed by Congresswomen Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib.
(4) Sen. Harris refused to publicly appear at the 2020 AIPAC policy conference. This snub is particularly concerning in light of VP Joe Biden’s appearance a few weeks ago at the “Million Muslim Votes Summit” along with Jew-haters and Israel-haters Linda Sarsour, Ilhan Omar, Nihad Awad, and Salam al-Marayati.
(5) Sen. Harris voted AGAINST S.1, the Senate’s major pro-Israel legislation, the “Strengthening America’s Security in the Middle East Act of 2019.” S.1 included the Israel Anti-Boycott Act, the Combating BDS Act, the extension of an existing loan guarantee program with Israel, and authorization of security assistance to Israel.
(6) Sen. Kamala Harris also did NOT join 48 of her colleagues who co-sponsored the S. 170 – Combating BDS Act of 2017. Senator Harris needs to end her wrongful opposition to anti-BDS laws.
(7) While serving as California’s Attorney General, Kamala Harris failed to act on the numerous letters from two dozen Jewish organizations, including ZOA, urging Harris to act against antisemitic activities taking place at California public university campuses. See, e.g., “JEWISH AND PRO-ISRAEL COMMUNITY TO CA ATTORNEY GENERAL KAMALA HARRIS: ‘WE’RE TROUBLED YOU ARE UNWILLING TO RESPOND TO OUR SERIOUS CONCERNS’.” ZOA urges Sen. Kamala Harris to demonstrate, while in the Senate now, and if elected Vice President, that she will assure that strong federal action is taken against the scourge of antisemitism and Israel-bashing, harming Jewish and other pro-Israel students, on college campuses.
ZOA further urges Sen. Harris to reverse the alarming policies that Joe Biden announced at the recent “Million Muslim Votes Summit” and in a written statement to the Summit’s organizer, Emgage. ZOA has demanded that Biden retract these announced policies:
- “Championing” Palestinian-Arab “rights” to a (terror) state;
- Ending travel restrictions that keep Americans safe from un-vettable people from terrorist-promoting countries “on day one”;
- Encouraging teaching the Islamic faith in public schools (!); religion should be kept out of schools.
- Rejoining the antisemitic Israel-bashing UN Human Rights Council;
- Condemning moderate Arab leaders of Egypt and Saudi Arabia;
- Reinstating the catastrophic Iran deal;
- “Opposing settlement expansion” (euphemisms for condemning Jews who add a nursery room onto their home in Jerusalem suburbs; there has been no “settlement expansion” for decades);
- “Reopen[ing] the U.S. consulate (which caters solely to Arabs) in East Jerusalem” (the consulate is actually in West Jerusalem; re-opening it is a discriminatory, diplomatic insult to Israel);
- “Find[ing] a way to re-open the PLO’s diplomatic mission in Washington” (despite the fact that the PLO mission violates U.S. law); and
- Resuming sending hundreds of millions of U.S. tax dollars to the Palestinians (which would enable the Palestinian Authority’s $400 million per year of “pay to slay” payments to Arabs to murder Jews and Americans).