The Democratic Party platform drafting committee is top-heavy with veterans of political battles over Israel — some friendly, some critical and at least one who is a major backer of the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement.
The Democratic National Committee named the committee on May 23, a day after reports emerged that Bernie Sanders wants the platform to elevate the issue of Palestinian rights.
The members of the committee — including East Bay Rep. Barbara Lee — signal that the robust debate on Israel that has rattled the party’s relationship with the mainstream pro-Israel community over the past two years will continue through the July 25-28 convention in Philadelphia.
Sanders, the first Jewish candidate to win major party nominating contests, named five of the committee’s members, while Hillary Clinton, the front-runner in the party’s presidential primaries, named six. The remaining four were named by the DNC’s chairwoman, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the Florida congresswoman who is among the most prominent Jewish leaders in the party.
Three of the Sanders backers on the committee are known in part for their criticisms of Israel: Cornel West, a philosopher and social activist; James Zogby, the president of the Arab American Institute; and Keith Ellison of Minnesota, the first Muslim elected to Congress.
West is a prominent BDS backer and Zogby has spoken forcefully against attempts to marginalize the anti-Israel movement. Ellison has called for greater consideration of Palestinian rights, but also has close ties to his home state Jewish community and says Israel’s security must be taken into account.
The eye-popping appointment is West, a fiery speaker who has called the Gaza Strip “the ‘hood’ on steroids.” In 2014, he wrote on Facebook that the crimes of Hamas “pale in the face of the U.S.-supported Israeli slaughters of innocent civilians.”
Zogby and Ellison are longtime insiders who have taken leadership roles in the party, so their inclusion is not extraordinary.
Among the six Clinton backers is Wendy Sherman, a former deputy secretary of state and lead negotiator in the Iran nuclear talks. Sherman, who has spoken lovingly of her involvement in Jewish life in suburban Maryland, was hurt by criticism of the deal from Israel’s government and centrist pro-Israel organizations.
Wasserman Schultz’s picks include Lee, a member of the House of Representatives since 1998 who has been critical of Israel in her career. After the 2008-09 Gaza war, Lee joined 59 House members in a letter urging the Obama administration to pressure Israel to allow increased humanitarian relief into the strip. She also spoke against a resolution condemning the 2009 U.N. report on the war — a report that was reviled by Israel’s government and the mainstream pro-Israel community.
Another Wasserman Schultz pick is Howard Berman, who is close to the pro-Israel community. The former California congressman shepherded through far-reaching Iran sanctions in 2010 when he was chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Elijah Cummings will be the committee’s chairman. The congressman from Maryland is close to his state’s Jewish community and for years has run a program sending a dozen or so black high school students from the Baltimore area to Israel.
The drafting committee will present its document to the full platform committee, which will vote on it during the convention. Usually there are few objections. In 2012, however, the drafting committee omitted from the draft platform recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. New language including the recognition was passed during the meeting of the full committee, but not without objections and boos.
All four of the House members on the drafting committee — Cummings, Lee, Ellison and Luis Gutierrez of Illinois — are endorsed by the political action committee affiliated with J Street.