Two Democratic candidates for Senate seats in Georgia held a campaign event over the weekend with a congressman who sparked controversy for calling Israeli Jews “termites”.
On Saturday, Democratic Senate hopefuls Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock held a “drive-in” campaign event in Conyers, Georgia, according to a website used by the Georgia Democratic Party’s get out the vote operation.
Warnock and Ossoff were reportedly joined by Georgia Congressman Hank Johnson, who represents Georgia’s Fourth Congressional District, which includes Conyers.
In 2016, Johnson was accused of anti-Semitism, after he called Jews living in Judea and Samaria “termites”, and accused Israeli Jews of stealing Arab land.
“There has been a steady [stream], almost like termites can get into a residence and eat before you know that you’ve been eaten up and you fall in on yourself, there has been settlement activity that has marched forward with impunity and at an ever increasing rate to the point where it has become alarming,” Johnson said at an event for the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, an anti-Israel organization which tries to gather support for the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
“You see one home after another being appropriated by Jewish people who come in to claim that land just because somebody did not spend the night there,” Johnson said,“The home their [Palestinian] ancestors lived in for generations becomes an Israeli home and a flag goes up,” he said, adding, “the Palestinians are barred from flying flags in their own neighborhoods.”
Johnson later apologized for what he called a “poor choice of words”, but doubled down on his criticism of Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, which he said “undermine two-state solution.”