Hillary Clinton should take balanced approach to Israel-Palestine

I am a Palestinian-American and part of a 3.6 million-strong community of Americans who trace their roots to an Arab country. Since I turned 18, I have participated in Democratic Party primaries and have usually voted for the main Democratic presidential nominee. My views generally can be described as supporting Democratic Party politics. This primary season, I was squarely in the Bernie Sanders camp. But now that Hillary Clinton has received the Democratic Party nomination, I am having trouble with the idea of voting for her in November.

For me it is not possible to choose to vote for a presidential candidate based on their views regarding the Israeli-Palestinian issue. This is because every major party nominee for president I’ve ever known has professed to be a staunch supporter of Israel, so my support for Palestinian freedom and human rights would have left me no one to vote for.

So I was heartened when Bernie Sanders made history during his campaign by bringing up the Israeli-Palestinian conflict during the presidential debate last April, criticizing Hillary for her lack of concern for Palestinian lives and rights.

The idea that the United States should view the rights of Israelis and Palestinians equally was new, especially in a national forum such as a presidential debate. In addition, Sanders was bold in affirming publicly that as it pursues justice and peace, the United States does not always have to agree with Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. He also pushed Clinton regarding her barely mentioning the Palestinians in her AIPAC speech.

For her part, last fall Clinton wrote an op-ed, “How I Would Reaffirm Unbreakable Bond With Israel—and Benjamin Netanyahu,” in which—yet again—she painted Israel as a victim, with not one mention of Israel’s wars on Gaza or the nearly 50-year-old military occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza. She also announced that one of her first acts in office as president would be to invite Netanyahu to the White House. Last year, Clinton wrote a letter to Israeli-American billionaire Haim Saban saying that she would make countering the grassroots Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement for Palestinian rights a priority and sought his advice for how to work together in this regard. Saban, of course, is one of the largest individual donors to the Democratic Party and has said, “I’m a one-issue guy, and my issue is Israel.” Hillary Clinton has been cozying up to Saban over the years; he and his wife contributed to her two Senate campaigns and are now the top donors to her presidential campaign.

Clinton’s unquestioning partisanship vis-à-vis Israel, embarrassing pandering to its supporters, and deliberate ignorance of basic rights for Palestinians upsets and alienates many of us, and not just Arab Americans. According to polls, Democrats and Americans in general are far more critical of Israel and its policies, and far more supportive of Palestinian rights, than Clinton and other members of the Democratic party establishment. According to a Pew poll released in released in May, more liberal Democrats (40 percent) sympathize with the Palestinians than do with Israel (33 percent). And according to a poll released by the Brookings Institution in December 2015, 75 percent of Democrats and 80 percent of independents want the United States to be impartial when it comes to Israel and Palestine. Further, fully half—49 percent—of Democrats would support sanctions or stronger measures against Israel over the construction of Jewish settlements on occupied Palestinian land, which violates longstanding US policy and international law.

Many of us wonder, will Clinton strive at all to make Washington “an honest broker” during negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians? How beholden will she feel to the influences of her billionaire supporters? Will her narrow view of justice and fairness expand to consider the human and national rights of Palestinians? So far, her words have given us no reason to be optimistic.

Although I have learned not to base my vote for president only on a candidate’s views regarding Israel and Palestine, these issues remain very important to me and to the growing number of Americans who support peace in the Middle East based on principles of fairness, justice and equality. So why does Clinton portray herself as progressive in many social and political arenas, such as civil rights and women’s rights, but not when it comes to human rights for millions of suffering Palestinians?

I ask, does Clinton want my vote? I live in a swing state, Virginia, and I would guess that my vote will count in this upcoming election. But she is not making any effort to espouse policies that will win me over—and others like me—and in fact is ignoring us altogether. If she wants to win my vote, and to stand on the right side of history, Clinton must begin to demonstrate that she values the lives and rights of Palestinians as much as those of Israelis.

Azzam is executive director of The Jerusalem Fund and its educational program, The Palestine Center, in Washington, DC. Views expressed are her own and do not reflect those of The Jerusalem Fund. Follow her on Twitter @zeina3azzam

The views expressed by Contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.