USA: Pramila Jayapal apologises for calling Israel a ‘racist state’

US Representative Pramila Jayapal has apologised for calling Israel a “racist” state.

Jayapal is the Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and is thought for her anti-Israel positions. In an official assertion on Sunday, Jayapal clarified that she doesn’t consider the thought of Israel as a nation is racist. “Words do matter,” mentioned Jayapal within the assertion including “and so it is important that I clarify my statement. I do not believe the idea of Israel as a nation is racist.”

Jayapal’s posted her assertion on Twitter and mentioned that she was trying to “defuse a tense situation” and provided her “apologies to those who I have hurt with my words.”

“At a conference, I attempted to defuse a tense situation during a panel where fellow members of Congress were being protested. Words do matter and so it is important that I clarify my statement. I do not believe the idea of Israel as a nation is racist. I do, however, believe that Netanyahu’s extreme right-wing government has engaged in discriminatory and outright racist policies and that there are extreme racists driving that policy within the leadership of the current government,” Jayapal mentioned.

Jayapal was responding to criticism about feedback she made throughout a panel dialogue at a convention in Chicago on Saturday.

In her official apology, the Washington Democrat mentioned, “I believe it is incumbent on all of us who are striving to make our world a more just and equitable place to call out and condemn these policies and this current Netanyahu government’s role in furthering them.”

She reaffirmed her dedication to selling a two-state answer that allows Israelis and Palestinians to stay aspect by aspect in freedom, security, and self-determination.

“I have always worked toward a two-state solution that allows both Israelis and Palestinians to live freely, safely, and with self-determination alongside each other and that is still what I am absolutely committed to. I also know that the many policies of the current Israeli government, including rampant settlement expansion, make it extremely difficult for Palestinians who simply want the same rights as their Israeli neighbors to believe such a solution is possible.”

“On a very human level, I was also responding to the deep pain and hopelessness that exists for Palestinians and their diaspora communities when it comes to this debate, but I in no way intended to deny the deep pain and hurt of Israelis and their Jewish diaspora community that still reels from the trauma of pogroms and persecution,” she continued.

Meanwhile, in a press release launched on Sunday, the House Democratic management tried to distance themselves from Jayapal by stating that “Israel is not a racist state.”

“As House Democratic leaders, we strongly support Israel’s right to exist as a homeland for the Jewish people,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.), Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.) and Vice Chair Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) mentioned, in accordance with The Hill.

Jayapal’s remarks got here at a time when Israeli President Isaac Herzog prepares to deal with a joint session of Congress on Wednesday throughout a visit to Washington, D.C., as a way to commemorate Israel’s seventy fifth anniversary of its founding.

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