Peter Beinart is a journalist, author and professor of journalism and political science at the City University of New York. He is editor-at-large of Jewish Currents and writes The Beinart Notebook, focusing on American foreign policy, Israel, Palestinians and Jewish public life.
DI has documented statements by Peter Beinart on Israel, Media, and Palestine, among other topics. Read the quotations, original sources and related cases below.
Role at the time: Journalist and commentator writing personally, also identifying himself as Jebreal's friend
Condemned
Statement summary
Beinart condemned Jebreal's wording, acknowledged her apology, and defended her wider record against bigotry while asking people to judge her on more than this incident.
“Rula Jebreal used racist language to criticize Hakeem Jeffries. Her comments were clearly wrong.”
Read the original post (opens in a new tab)Peter Beinart condemns Jebreal's wording while defending her broader record · Peter BeinartComplete original post, including opening condemnation and subsequent defense of her record
Why we used this label
His full post unequivocally rejects the language. Defending the person’s overall record and asking for decency do not excuse using the words; mixed would conflate evaluation of conduct with evaluation of character.
Rula Jebreal called Hakeem Jeffries a "bought and paid by AIPAC monkey" and an "errand boy" while denying racial intent, then apologized. The Congressional Black Caucus called the words racist; Wajahat Ali and Joy-Ann Reid stressed context but criticized the language.
