Megan Romer, co-chair of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), has drawn sharp criticism from pro-Israel organizations for stating in a recent interview that the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks on Israel were "largely inevitable." The comments were made during an interview with The New Yorker's David Remnick.
Romer suggested that the attacks were a predictable response to the conditions in Gaza. "If you put people in an open-air concentration camp and you deprive them of rights, of dignity, of food, of the ability to live in safety, you have to expect that they are going to not take that for that long," she said, while also stating that her remarks were not intended to defend harm to civilians.
These statements prompted strong condemnation from several pro-Israel groups. Morton A. Klein, National President of the Zionist Organization of America, argued that the inevitability of the attacks stemmed from Hamas's election, its charter calling for Israel's destruction, and the financial and logistical support it received from Qatar and Iran. Klein also pointed to the role of UNRWA in educating children to hate Jews and employing Hamas terrorists, as well as Israel's decision to issue work permits to Gazans under pressure from the Biden administration, as factors contributing to the events of Oct. 7.
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) also condemned Romer's remarks, calling them "hateful and demonizing rhetoric" that goes beyond policy criticism and puts Jewish Americans at risk. The ADL noted that Romer stated she "probably would have" attended a pro-Hamas rally held the day after the Oct. 7 attacks, and referred to the massacre as a "revolt."
Rabbi Yaakov Menken, Executive Vice President for Coalition for Jewish Values, described Romer's justification as a "mythological inversion of reality" and called the DSA "objectively antisemitic."