A top adviser to the presidential candidate met with a Palestinian official who has accused Israel of “apartheid,” “ethnic cleansing,” and “stealing Palestinian land.”
By World Israel News Staff
Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), met with U.S. presidential candidate Bernie Sanders’ foreign policy adviser, Matt Duss, to discuss the Trump administration’s “hostile approach” and “destructive policies,” according to WAFA, the news agency of the Palestinian Authority.
The report says that Ashwari and Duss met to discuss Trump policies they claim “undermine the prospects of peace and the Palestinian people’s inalienable rights to freedom.”
Ashrawi, a longtime Palestinian mouthpiece in the international media, tweeted last week, “If the U.S. administration wants to play a constructive role it can start by rescinding its recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and by recognizing the rights of the Palestinian people including the right to self-determination. A partner in the occupation cannot be a partner in peace.”
Ashrawi and Duss also reportedly “discussed the Trump administration’s vindictive actions against the Palestinian people and leadership, including . . . the rejection of Ashrawi’s visa application to the U.S.”
According to WAFA, “Duss expressed Senator Sanders’ dismay and objection [to] this petty step.”
Following news of the meeting, Duss was described as “vehemently anti-Israel” by senior-editor-at-large for Breitbart News Joel Pollak.
Pollak also noted that Ashrawi “routinely accuses Israel of ‘apartheid,’ ‘ethnic cleansing,’ and ‘stealing Palestinian land.’”
In addition, she called Israel the “most racist, violent government in world history,” he writes.
“Ashrawi also met with the French Consul-General in Jerusalem, Pierre Cochard, at the PLO Headquarters in Ramallah,” according to WAFA, and “called on France to reject any involvement” in the Bahrain conference in late June, which U.S. officials have described as an economic precursor to implementation of President Donald Trump’s peace plan for Israelis and Palestinians.