Progressives push Democrats to acknowledge West Bank occupation in party platform
Democrats made a series of compromises between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel camps in the 2020 party platform, but progressives want to amend it with a reference to the occupation of the West Bank.
The Democratic Party’s 80-page draft platform for 2020 contains only three paragraphs on Israel. And the carefully calibrated language in those three paragraphs is under just as much scrutiny as ever.
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) went to great lengths to appease both its pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel factions when drafting the platform. But progressives are still pushing the DNC to amend the 80-page document with a reference to Israel’s occupation of the West Bank when the platform committee convenes Monday.
The left-leaning lobby group J Street has allied with other progressive organizations in a push to add a reference to the occupation before the DNC finalizes its platform, setting up a battle with Democratic delegates more closely aligned with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).
“J Street is very pleased to see that the apparent first draft of the party’s platform looks set to include significant improvements on the 2016 platform — including the first ever articulation, in the platform of a major American political party, of support for Palestinian rights alongside affirmation of support for Israel’s security and opposition to settlement expansion and unilateral annexation,” the group’s president, Jeremy Ben-Ami, said in a statement. “At the same time, we’re very concerned that the draft apparently makes no refence to Israel’s ongoing occupation of Palestinian territory.”
