The Democrats in the US remain a deeply anti-Palestinian party (with some notable exceptions).
I spoke to the US outlet, Splinter, about the recent Democratic National Convention:
These attitudes—especially when intertwined with the circumstances of Gaza—tell us that liberals at the highest levels of power see those attempting to escape the smoldering wreckage birthed by our imperial past and present as, at best, politically inconvenient. At worst, those fleeing either Israeli bombs or the fallout of the American-led economic order are a problem to be dealt with via the cold, calculating hand of the administrative apparatus.
That’s how the journalist Antony Loewenstein explained it to me. In Lowenstein’s recent book, The Palestine Laboratory, he makes the case that the methods by which Israel has conducted its occupation of Gaza and the West Bank—especially through its advancements in military and surveillance technology—have been exported across the globe. From the United States to India, governments interested in efficiently handling their undesirables have been keen to borrow the tactics and tools tested by Israel.
“The way I see it is that there is an attempt increasingly to Palestinianize global issues, meaning that the way that Israel deals with Palestinians is to put them in either isolated areas behind high walls, mass surveillance, keeping them almost on life support,” Loewenstein said.
“[And many] other nations also want to treat and manage their own unwanted populations this way…Even parties on the so-called center-left are increasingly adopting these kinds of policies. They see Israel as a model,” he added. “So to me, the fact that the Democrats in general aren’t just not pushing back, that they’re encouraging these policies is, in a way, shows how they see the migrant issue.”