US: Josh Shapiro's 'volunteer' work for Israeli army scrutinised as Harris eyes VP nod

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro's links to and support for Israel have been in the spotlight this past week, as the prominent Democrat is the top contender to become the vice presidential nominee and Kamala Harris' running mate in the upcoming US presidential election this November. 

Shapiro is a frontrunner for the position of vice presidential nominee alongside Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear; Minnesota Governor Tim Walz; Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg; Arizona Senator Mark Kelly; and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker.

Over the past several days, Shapiro's political stock has soared. And amid the rise in attention towards him, a website was launched called "No Genocide Josh". It urges the Harris campaign against choosing him over his links to Israel and his past comments and actions demonising the pro-Palestine movement as well as pro-Palestinian sentiments in the state of Pennsylvania.

Shapiro has been a staunch supporter of Israel for decades, dating back to his high school and college days when he wrote for a student newspaper at the University of Rochester. One opinion piece, titled "Peace Not Possible", resurfaced in a newspaper last month.

“Palestinians will not coexist peacefully,” Shapiro wrote. “They do not have the capabilities to establish their own homeland and make it successful even with the aid of Israel and the United States. They are too battle-minded to be able to establish a peaceful homeland of their own.”

In that article, Shapiro also said he had previously served as a volunteer in the Israeli army.

"Despite my skepticism as a Jew and a past volunteer in the Israeli army, I strongly hope and pray that this ‘peace plan’ will be successful," he wrote.

The governor has sought to downplay his previous comments, and a spokesperson told Middle East Eye that his volunteer service included "projects on an Israeli army base" and that at "no time was he engaged in any military activities".

"While he was in high school, Josh Shapiro was required to do a service project, which he and several classmates completed through a programme that took them to a kibbutz in Israel where he worked on a farm and at a fishery," said Manuel Bonder, a spokesperson for the governor.

"The programme also included volunteering on service projects on an Israeli army base. At no time was he engaged in any military activities."

The reference to his volunteer work was recently scrubbed from his Wikipedia page.

But his service for Israel didn't end there. In 1996, Shapiro worked for the Israeli embassy in Washington DC in the public affairs department, a spokesperson for the governor told The Bulwark. The spokesperson's comments were confirmed to MEE by Bonder.

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Filling in a blank in Gov @JoshShapiroPA’s Israel ties: from April-Sept 96, he worked in its DC embassy’s Hasbara/public affairs division

His past employment was flagged to me as his Israel positions have come under scrutiny now that he’s a Harris VP shortlister pic.twitter.com/MFduwIC8U7

— Marc Caputo (@MarcACaputo) August 3, 2024

The criticism against Shapiro, who is Jewish, has been labelled "antisemitic" by lawmakers and US media outlets, and the governor himself has said his views have changed and he supports a two-state solution in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

But pro-Palestinian activists and Muslim rights groups are demanding more than rhetoric from the politician.

"Governor Shapiro must not simply claim that his views have changed," Cair-Philadelphia executive director Ahmet Tekelioglu said in a statement.

"He must explicitly apologise and then prove that he has changed by retracting his recent anti-Palestinian positions, pledging to protect the right of students, state employees and everyone else in Pennsylvania to protest the Gaza genocide, and calling for an end to US support for the Israeli government’s war crimes."

Comparing pro-Palestine protesters to KKK

One of the "No Genocide Josh" campaign's concerns was an interview with Shapiro on CNN, in which he compared student protesters against the war on Gaza to members of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), an American white supremacist and hate group.

"Students shouldn’t be blocked from going to campus just because they’re Jewish or learning in a classroom, as opposed to being forced online because they’re Jewish. It is simply unacceptable," Shapiro said.

"And you know what? We have to query whether or not we would tolerate this, if this were people dressed up in KKK outfits or KKK regalia making comments about people who are African-American in our communities."

It's not clear which university Shapiro was referring to when he said Jewish students were blocked from campus. But Middle East Eye reviewed a claim of this nature from pro-Israel students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and found no evidence that any students, Jewish, Israeli or otherwise, were hindered from attending class.

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In another sign of his staunch opposition to the pro-Palestine protests both on and off university campuses, Shapiro was also quick to condemn University of Pennsylvania president Elizabeth Magill for not doing enough to quell the demonstrations.

"[Magill and the Penn board] have seemingly failed every step of the way to take concrete action to make sure every student feels safe on campus,” Shapiro said. “Frankly, I thought her comments were absolutely shameful. It should not."

The governor made those comments during a rally in support of Goldie's restaurant. The Israeli-owned restaurant saw protesters rally outside of the eatery after its owner sent money to an aid organisation that supported the Israeli military. The restaurant also fired an employee for wearing a Palestinian flag pin.

In May, as protests against Israel's war on Gaza were taking place across the country, the governor updated his administration's code of conduct and effectively barred all state employees from engaging in "scandalous or disgraceful" behaviour. Legal experts raised alarms at the move and questioned whether pro-Palestinian sentiment would be deemed scandalous, which they said was an overly broad category.

Shapiro has said that he has "built close, meaningful, informative relationships" with Muslim and Arab communities across Pennsylvania.

But last October, a coalition of dozens of Muslim groups in the state of Pennsylvania penned a letter to Shapiro, in which they expressed they were "deeply disturbed and disappointed" by his comments in the immediate aftermath of the Israeli war on Gaza.

"Words matter, Governor Shapiro. The rhetoric coming from our elected officials create a context where anti-Muslim and anti-Arab hate found flourishing ground and we are concerned for our communities," the letter said.

"Your statement on Monday October 9, 2023, is an effective endorsement of all these policies and the racist, militaristic discourse coming from Israel."

Democrats share similar views on Israel

While Shapiro has been receiving the bulk of the criticism from progressives and pro-Palestine activists regarding his views on Israel, the other leading nominees for the vice presidential candidacy don't stray far from his outlook.

Tim Walz, the Minnesota governor lauded for his progressive views and stances on labour issues, previously voted in favour of US military aid to Israel when he was a congressman.

Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear was the first governor to recognise the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition of antisemitism, a controversial definition that equates anti-Zionism with antisemitism.

More than 100 human rights and civil society groups have raised concerns about the definition, saying it could be used to stifle pro-Palestine activism.

Middle East Eye reported last month that the Democratic Party platform for 2024 endorsed US President Joe Biden's widely unpopular approach to Israel's war on Gaza, which has been the core focus of the ongoing popular demonstrations taking place across the United States.