Five Democratic presidential candidates say they will not attend this year’s American Israel Public Affairs Committee policy conference.
The announcements come a day after progressive advocacy group MoveOn urged candidates to skip the conference, which is widely attended by lawmakers in both political parties.
Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Kamala Harris of California will not be attending, according to reports. Neither will independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who is Jewish, nor former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro.
“Sen. Sanders has no plans to attend the AIPAC conference,” a Sanders aide told CNN. “He’s concerned about the platform AIPAC is providing for leaders who have expressed bigotry and oppose a two-state solution.”
South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg is also skipping, the Washington Examiner confirmed Thursday. Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, who is considering an independent run for president, is also reportedly not going.
MoveOn condemned AIPAC on Wednesday in a series of tweets, criticizing the group’s links to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and its peddling of “anti-Muslim and anti-Arabic rhetoric.”
“It’s time for progressives to recognize where their base stands––which means upholding progressive principles on domestic AND foreign policy,” MoveOn wrote on Twitter Wednesday.
AIPAC, a pro-Israel lobbying group that claims to have more than 100,000 members, has come under fire from progressive lawmakers like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., who said that AIPAC was “coming after” her and fellow Democratic Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan.
Omar recently made remarks widely interpreted as being anti-Semitic when she talked about congressional support for the organization, suggesting lawmakers support it because of money.
