The Democratic Party’s platform drafting committee is tussling over whether to use the word “occupation” in addressing the Israeli-Palestinian issue, reflecting divisions between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton that could play out at the convention.
The Democratic National Committee held two days of open hearings last week in Washington, D.C., on the platform, inviting experts to testify. The hearings, which will also take place in other cities, got underway the same week that it became clear that Clinton had secured her position as the party’s presumptive presidential nominee.
Sanders, the first Jewish candidate to win major nominating contests, on June 14 congratulated Clinton. In a statement released by his campaign, it appeared Sanders wants to leverage his endorsement of Clinton to make sure she keeps steering in the leftward direction he has nudged her during the primary campaign.
“The two discussed a variety of issues where they are seeking common ground: substantially raising the minimum wage; real campaign finance reform; making health care universal and accessible; making college affordable, and reducing student debt,” the statement said.
Clinton’s campaign in its statement forecast a role for Sanders in shaping the party platform. Much of the back and forth on June 9, when the party’s platform drafting committee considered foreign policy, was about whether the committee should describe Israel’s presence in the West Bank as an “occupation.”
Sanders appointed five members to the 15-member committee, including three who have advocated for Palestinian rights in the past: Cornel West, a philosopher who backs the boycott Israel movement; James Zogby, the president of the Arab American Institute, and Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn. Clinton appointed six committee members.
West said during the hearing that the party’s platform should include the word “occupation,” suggesting that to do otherwise would mean being “beholden” to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. AIPAC staffers were in the room, as were staffers from other pro-Israel groups, including J Street.
Sanders said last month that he wanted Palestinian rights reflected in the platform. The most recent platform, from 2012, advocates for a two-state solution, but casts it in terms of preserving Israel’s security.
Howard Berman, a former California congressman with extensive foreign affairs experience who is one of four appointees by DNC chairwoman Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., said listing the grievances of both sides would bog down the platform.
“I could come up with a list, if we want this platform to get into it, of issues of (Palestinian) incitement,” he said.
Robert Wexler, a former Florida congressman who appeared before the committee as an expert witness representing Clinton’s views, said that to include the word “occupation” would be inflammatory and would prejudge the outcome of negotiations, which is not the role of the party.
Zogby countered that the 2012 platform says that “Jerusalem is and will remain the capital of Israel,” a statement that also prejudges the outcome of negotiations.
The drafting committee’s platform will be presented to the full committee during the convention in late July in Philadelphia. Party officials are eager not to repeat the scene in 2012, when the full platform committee, under fire by pro-Israel groups for not including Jerusalem in the original draft, voted to add recognition of the city as Israel’s capital. — jta