Representative Jamaal Bowman slammed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday, referring to him as a “maniac” and calling for his ousting from office.
Bowman, a Democrat who represents New York’s 16th Congressional District, made the remarks on Saturday while appearing on MSNBC’s Alex Witt Reports.
During the segment, Bowman told host Alex Witt that he fully agrees with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat who earlier this month called for new elections in Israel and described Netanyahu as an “obstacle to peace.”
Witt and Bowman discussed his thoughts on the U.S. State Department recently authorizing the transfer of 25 F-35A fighter jets and engines worth about $2.5 billion to Israel. The transfer was approved by Congress in 2008, so the State Department was not required to get new approval or re-notify lawmakers, The Washington Post reported. Witt asked the congressman “given the politics of it,” whether the Biden administration should have provided Congress with notice of the arms transfer.
Alexi J. Rosenfeld, Leigh Vogel/Getty
“Forget the politics of it, this is about our humanity, and this is about our morality,” Bowman said. “We have hundreds of thousands of children starving to death in Gaza right now, as we speak. The majority of the American people support a permanent cease-fire. The majority of my district supports a permanent ceasefire. We need a permanent ceasefire, we need to bring in hundreds of trucks that are five miles away from Gaza right now of aid to save as many lives as possible. There’s a humanitarian crisis. The majority of Gaza has already been destroyed through act of collective punishment by this maniac Benjamin Netanyahu. I am 100 percent with Senator Schumer. He needs to be removed.”
Newsweek reached out via email on Saturday to representatives for Bowman and Netanyahu for comment.
Israel’s military offensive in Gaza was ignited by Hamas’ surprise attack on October 7, 2023, that left roughly 1,200 dead and an estimated 250 taken hostage. The war has left more than 32,000 Palestinians dead and more than 75,000 injured, according to the Associated Press, citing figures from Gaza’s Health Ministry. Women and children make up a majority of the death toll in Gaza, the ministry reported. Before the war, Gaza was home to roughly 2.3 million people, but the violence has displaced more than 80 percent of the population. United Nations (U.N.) officials have warned that at least a quarter of the people left in the war-torn territory are facing imminent starvation.
The mounting Palestinian civilian death toll and harrowing images of dead children among the rubble of bombed buildings have ignited international calls for a ceasefire and have heightened pressure on the Biden administration to take a tougher line on Israel, an ally to the U.S.
Bowman has been among the U.S. lawmakers who have been calling for a ceasefire and condemning Netanyahu.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, earlier this month the congressman wrote: “Sen. Schumer is right: Netanyahu is an obstacle to peace. We need to use the full leverage of the US government to put an immediate end to the violence.”
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.