TEL AVIV – New Jersey Senator Cory Booker, a possible contender for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, was photographed on Friday holding a sign calling for the removal of the security fence in “Palestine.”
Booker attended the liberal Netroots Nation conference and posed alongside activists from the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights while holding a sign that reads, “From Palestine to Mexico, all the walls have got to go.”
“Palestine” is not a country.
The radical anti-Israel group posted the picture of Booker on Twitter, along with text reading, “Excited to be here at Netroots Nation talking with progressives like Sen. Cory Booker about our shared commitment to freedom, justice, and equality for all people.”
The spokesman for Booker’s senate office said he wasn’t aware the sign had a mention of any other wall apart from the one proposed by President Donald Trump.
Excited to be here at Netroots Nation talking with progressives like Sen. Cory Booker about our shared commitment to freedom, justice, and equality for all people. #NN18 pic.twitter.com/ljswLmv32w
— Palestinian Rights (@US_Campaign) August 3, 2018
“Just before delivering a speech in New Orleans, Senator Booker was approached by dozens of people for photos,” Jeff Giertz said. “In one instance, amid the rush, he was posing for a photo and was passed a sign to hold—he didn’t have time to read the sign, and from his cursory glance he thought it was talking about Mexico and didn’t realize it had anything to do with Israel.”
Giertz added that Booker, who has close ties with the Jewish community, does maintain the necessity of security barriers as long as “active terrorist organizations threaten the safety of the people living in Israel.”
“He hopes for a day when there will be no need for security barriers in the State of Israel, but while active terrorist organizations threaten the safety of the people living in Israel, security barriers are unfortunate but necessary to protect human lives,” Giertz said.
Israel built the security fence during the Second Intifada, when Palestinian suicide bombers and other terrorists murdered more than 1,000 Israelis. The security fence is one of the most effective terror deterrents ever employed by Israel.
Standing next to Booker in the picture is the group’s head of government affairs, Leah Muskin-Pierret, wearing a T-shirt that says, “Palestine is a feminist/queer/refugee/racial justice issue.”
Muskin-Pierret was an active member of Students for Justice in Palestine and donated to the legal defense fund for convicted terrorist Rasmea Odeh’s over her extradition from the U.S.
According to the Washington Free Beacon, Muskin-Pierret’s group professed its “love” for Odeh, expressing that it hopes to see her in a “liberated Palestine.” Booker was criticized by the pro-Israel camp for voting against the passage of the Taylor Force Act, a bill that saw aid to the Palestinian Authority conditional on the cessation of its so-called pay-for-slay policy of paying terrorists and their families of terrorists.
Booker recently expressed support for funding security assistance to Israel.
“Ending security assistance to our closest ally in the Middle East at a time when Israel faces new threats emanating from Syria and continued aggression from Iran and its proxies would undermine stability in the region and harm our own national security,” he said in July. “The United States and Israel have a history of unprecedented cooperation on the basis of shared ideals and democratic principles. [Curtailing funding] would dramatically undermine our enduring commitment to Israel’s security and the historic ties between our two nations, jeopardizing a a peaceful and stable future.”
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