Memo: Israel-Palestine and the 2020 Election
By Data for Progress Senior Fellow Emma Saltzberg
Israel is among the largest recipients of US military aid. It enforces a military occupation over more than 4.5 million Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem. Israel/Palestine is becoming a contentious issue in Democratic intra-party politics. Some progressives in the Democratic Party, including presidential candidates, have raised the possibility of conditioning or cutting US military aid to Israel as part of an effort to pressure Israel to end the occupation and to reach a just, negotiated solution.
But it can be difficult to understand where Democratic candidates stand on Israel and Palestine.
Data for Progress Senior Fellow Emma Saltzberg has created documents which track candidates’ records on Israel/Palestine in one place. She has collected public statements and key votes from the 5 highest-polling Democratic presidential candidates on aspects of policy relating to Israel and Palestine. The profiles break down each candidate’s record and stances on key Israel/Palestine policy questions, including military aid to Israel and the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement (BDS). Each also includes a short section about the candidate’s record on antisemitism (which is not the same thing as criticizing Israeli policy) and white nationalism. These are up to date through August 2019.
Data for Progress also conducted polling asking voters about their support for reducing military aid to Israel based on human rights abuses and their support for reducing military aid to human rights abusers in general. The polling memo is below.
