Left-wing activist Linda Sarsour has endorsed 2020 presidential candidate and independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary field.
Sarsour emerged as a campaign surrogate for Sanders in recent days, speaking at a rally for the Vermont senator in Brooklyn in support of his White House bid.
“I would be so proud to win, but also to make history and elect the first Jewish American president this country has ever seen and for his name to be Bernard Sanders,” Sarsour said at the rally.
“I would be so proud to win, but also to make history and elect the first Jewish American president this country has ever seen and for his name to be Bernard Sanders.” –@lsarsour pic.twitter.com/INPRlvmMur
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) September 6, 2019
Sarsour cited the growing rise of “white nationalism and anti-Semitism” in the U.S. as a reason for the importance of electing Sanders to be the first Jewish president.
Her political beliefs also line up with Sanders’ campaign platform, which has promised to enact “Medicare for all” and access to tuition-free public college. Both have also advocated for a wealth tax on the top 1% of citizens who possess the bulk of the nation’s wealth and a $15 minimum wage.
She also said she trusted Sanders to create a more “transformative foreign policy, one that is centered on peace and diplomacy.”
“A foreign policy that sees Palestinians as human beings deserving of human rights and self-determination,” Sarsour said. “Bernie doesn’t ask us how much these things will cost, because only people who don’t believe we deserve these things will ask us how to pay for things like healthcare, but never ask us how to pay for endless and unjust wars.”
Sarsour advoacted anti-Semitic slogans during the 2018 Women’s March. She has also forged bonds with public figures accused of making anti-Semitic comments, including Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, Democratic Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, and the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
She has worked with both Omar and Tlaib, and the two congresswomen were prohibited from traveling to Israel last month for their outspoken support of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement. Tlaib would later be allowed to enter the country to visit her grandmother in the West Bank but she ultimately refused to go, citing the “oppressive conditions” she faced.
Sarsour refers to Israeli-occupied land as “Palestine” and has accused Jewish Americans of dual loyalty to Israel. She has also asserted that people who oppose the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement do so because they “masquerade as progressives but always choose their allegiance to Israel over their commitment to democracy and free speech.”
