A recording has surfaced of New York City mayoral candidate Dianne Morales speaking at an event last December and referring to Israel as an "apartheid state," the Forward reported on Saturday, after obtaining the audio.
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According to the Forward report, Morales – currently polling at around 3% in the mayoral race – met with a group of Jewish high school students and told them she could not advocate for "equity and justice" in New York City while turning a blind eye to "the challenges around those issues in Israel and with the folks living in Gaza and Palestine."
Morales said that while she agreed in principle with a recent initiative by the Democratic Socialists of America that asked candidates for New York City mayor not to travel to Israel if they were elected as a way of demonstrating solidarity with "Palestinians living under occupation," she would not rule out travelling to Israel if she were elected mayor.
In 2015, Morales visited Israel on a junket with the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York. She says she does not feel that participants in the trip were given "honest information," the Forward reported.
Israel is so beautiful, Morales reportedly says, that she can understand why "everybody wants a piece of it." Still, the mayoral candidate said that Israel was an "active" participant in infringing and violating "other people's human rights."
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