Rep. Jamaal Bowman criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, calling him a “maniac” and an obstacle to peace while demanding a new election in Israel in an interview with MSNBC Saturday.
The New York Democrat, who is a member of the “Squad” and has been a strong supporter of a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war, said he was “100%” behind Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., amid his calls to have Netanyahu removed from office through a new election in Israel.
“There’s a humanitarian crisis. The majority of Gaza has already been destroyed through acts of collective punishment by this maniac, Benjamin Netanyahu,” Bowman said. “I’m 100% with Sen. Schumer. He needs to be removed. He is a blockade to a pathway to peace. And we need a cease-fire right now.”
Earlier this month, Schumer declared on the Senate floor that the “Netanyahu coalition no longer fits the needs of Israel after Oct. 7,” the New York Post reported. Schumer also claimed that Netanyahu was an obstacle to peace in the region and that there should be a new election in Israel.
Bowman also slammed the Biden administration’s approving the shipment of more weapons to Israel, telling MSNBC, “Congress should have been notified, and forget the politics of it. This is about our humanity, and this is about our morality. 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.”
Bowman, who was first elected to the House in 2020, pleaded guilty last October to a misdemeanor count for pulling a fire alarm in the U.S. Capitol Office building when there was actually no emergency and the chamber was in session. He agreed to pay a $1,000 fine and serve three months of probation, NPR reported.
Last week, the Jewish Democratic Council of America endorsed George Latimer in his Democratic Party primary race against Bowman for New York’s 16th Congressional District, according to the New York Post.
