Ben Shapiro may be feeling “the Bern” from Twitter users after he quipped that Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) isn’t really Jewish.
The right-wing podcaster weighed in after Sanders hosted a “Nakba Day” event on Wednesday organized by Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), the first Palestinian-American woman elected to Congress. Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) had previously canceled the event in the House.
Nakba refers to the “catastrophe” and recognizes when Palestinians were displaced from their homes beginning in 1948 with the establishment of the State of Israel.
Sanders, who is Jewish, has been critical of the Israeli government and has expressed sympathy for Palestinians.
Shapiro responded to a tweet about Sanders by calling the senator’s Jewishness into question: “Bernie Sanders is approximately as Jewish as a ham sandwich topped with shrimp on lard bread.”
Twitter responded by adding context to Shapiro’s tweet:
“Sen. Sanders grew up in Brooklyn, a son of Jewish immigrants. His father, Elias, emigrated from Poland in 1921 at 17. Sen. Sanders learned during an appearance on the PBS show Finding Your Roots that he had family killed during the Holocaust.”
Sanders’ father’s brother Abraham was shot and killed by Nazis in 1942 after he refused to turn people over to be executed, as the senator learned on “Finding Your Roots.”
Twitter users had some thoughts about Shapiro’s comment.