Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders pushed back on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s claim that protests on US college campuses are driven by antisemitism, telling CNN’s Dana Bash that it’s critical to hold the Israeli government accountable for its actions in Gaza.
In the interview on Sunday morning, Sanders said the “vast majority of the American people are disgusted with Netanyahu’s war machine in Gaza” and do not want more aid sent to Israel.
While Sanders said he acknowledges “antisemitism exists and is growing in the United States,” he said it is not antisemitic for protesters to hold Netanyahu accountable for his actions in Gaza, which he says are “unprecedented in the modern history of warfare.”
Sanders said Israel's widespread destruction of homes and infrastructure in Gaza, and the death toll of more than 30,000 people, according to the enclave's health ministry, is the reason people want the Israeli government held accountable.
“When you make those charges, that is not antisemitic, that is a reality,” the senator told Bash.
Sanders said he condemns Hamas, antisemitism, Islamophobia and other forms of bigotry, but emphasized again, “We do have to pay attention to the disastrous and unprecedented humanitarian disaster taking place in Gaza right now.”
Watch a clip from the interview below: