Two Georgia Democrats, an Atlanta-area congressman and the woman he replaced on Capitol Hill a decade ago, both drew outrage on social media in recent days for comments seen as anti-Israel.
U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Lithonia, was criticized by the Anti-Defamation League and other groups on Monday afternoon after he was quoted likening Jewish settlements in the disputed West Bank to “termites.” His remarks came two days after former U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney, a Democrat with a track record of making remarks viewed as anti-Semitic, implied on Twitter that Israel was behind recent attacks in France and Germany.
The biggest blowback came after Johnson spoke at an event sponsored by the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, a group that advocates for ending U.S. support for Israeli policies viewed as anti-Palestinian.
“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, according to the conservative news site The Washington Free Beacon.
“We’ve gotten to the point where the thought of a Palestinian homeland gets further and further removed from reality,” the news site also quoted Johnson as saying.
Johnson, arguably the Georgia congressional delegation’s most liberal member, quickly drew rebukes on social media. The Anti-Defamation League called the comments “offensive and unhelpful.”
“Demonization, dehumanization of settlers doesn’t advance peace,” the group tweeted, asking the five-term lawmaker to retract his remarks.
Johnson later apologized, saying he picked a “poor choice of words.”
In a statement to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Johnson, who recently returned from a trip to Palestine with several House Democratic colleagues, said the “increasingly violent situation in Israel and Palestine is unsustainable.”
“The corrosive settlement policies undermine the ability of all citizens in the region to enjoy healthy, peaceful lives in safe communities,” he said. “We must work to promote policies that support a two-state solution and encourage trust between both sides.”
Johnson’s office clarified that the lawmaker did not intend to call Israelis or Jews termites.
“When using the metaphor of termites, the congressman was referring to the corrosive process, not the people,” a spokesman said.
It is unclear what impact Johnson’s comments will have on his standing with Jewish voters in the heavily Democratic 4th Congressional District, which is centered in DeKalb County. That very group rallied around him in 2006, helping him oust McKinney in an upset victory in that year’s Democratic primary runoff.
A member of the House Armed Services Committee, Johnson specializes in defense issues and has sought to frame himself as a congressional ally of the Black Lives Matter movement. But he is perhaps best known for a botched quip about whether the island of Guam could tip over due to the U.S. military presence there.
McKinney, meanwhile, was also in the news on Saturday after she tweeted a video that asserted a German journalist married to a former Israeli lawmaker was nearby during recent attacks in Nice and Munich. The post also referenced a discredited conspiracy theory that Israelis in New York were dancing in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks.
“Same Israeli photographer captures Nice and Munich tragedies. How likely is that?” she tweeted. “Remember the Dancing Israelis?”
The remarks weren’t the first time McKinney, the Green Party presidential nominee in 2008, landed in the news for remarks deemed anti-Israeli. She tweeted a link last year to a controversial French comedian who had a history of making hateful comments about Jews, and she asserted that the bombs at the Boston Marathon were an inside job. Her father, the late state Rep. Billy McKinney, was known for espousing anti-Semitic views.
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