Rev Raphael Warnock is running to replace Georgia Senator Kelly Loeffler, who was appointed to the seat after Johnny Isakson resigned. A special election will be held Jan 5 & is expected to be closely contested.
Warnock gave a speech as pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, King’s old congregation.
In the speech, Warnock lamented the “tough week” in which the US opened its embassy in Jerusalem as Palestinians in Gaza marched to the border in protest.
“Standing there were the president’s family & a few mealy-mouthed evangelical preachers who are responsible for the mess we find ourselves in, both there & here — misquoting & misinterpreting Scripture, talking peace.
” “Meanwhile, young Palestinian sisters & brothers, who struggle for their very lives, for water & for their human dignity stood up in non-violent (sic) protest, saying, ‘If we’re gonna die, we’re gonna die strugglin’ And yes, there've been some folk who were violent, but we oughta know how that works out. We know what it’s like to stand up peacefully & have the media focus on a few violent uprisings. But you have to look at those Palestinian sisters & brothers, who struggle for their human dignity & have a right to self-determination, a right to breathe free.” “We need a two-state solution,”
Warnock continued.
“We saw Israel shoot down unarmed Palestinian sisters & brothers like birds of prey.” “It's wrong to shoot down God’s children like they don’t matter at all. It’s no more anti-Semitic for me to say that than it's anti-white for me to say Black lives matter. Palestinian lives matter.”
Asked for comment on the video, Warnock’s campaign told Jewish Insider that its opponents were “going thru 1000s of hours of footage trying to find a way to misrepresent who Reverend Warnock is & scare Georgians.”
In the op-ed, Warnock acknowledged he's “deeply concerned about settlements,” calling it a “threat to the two-state solution.” He vowed to advocate for Palestinians as senator, “because I want to see a Palestinian state.”
The sermon resurfaced days after a letter he signed in 2019 likening Israeli control of the West Bank to “previous oppressive regimes” was picked up by Jewish Insider.
Published by the National Council of Churches, says Israel’s “heavy militarization of the West Bank is reminiscent of military occupation of Namibia by apartheid South Africa.” “We felt Palestinian fear that gives rise to a paradoxical combination of despair & hopeful resolve in a grinding & dehumanizing existence,” the letter read.
In his op-ed, Warnock rejects accusations he likened Israel to South Africa. Warnock’s opponent, Republican incumbent Kelly Loeffler, accused the reverend of having “a long history of anti-Israel extremism.” “He embraced anti-Zionist Black Lives Matter. And he thinks Israel is an ‘oppressive regime’ for fighting back against terrorism,” she tweeted.
The Warnock campaign didn't immediately respond to a request for further comment
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