Evelyn Garcia

PALM BEACH – Another American has lost their job after criticizing Israel. According to a report from The Palm Beach Post, Evelyn Garcia, a member of the Democratic National Committee resigned from the position after emails she had written speaking out against the Israeli occupation were found. One email reads: “The continued Israeli occupation of Palestine is ugly on moral, ethical, religious and legal grounds,” Evelyn Garcia said in an email July 26, 2011,  the Post reports. The email went on to say,” Palestinians had nothing to do with the Holocaust and it is time that this guilt trip was taken off their backs…And I deeply resent U.S. taxpayer funds being used to continue Israeli aggression.” She also said Israel has confiscated land and built illegal settlements in occupied territorries as well as, “incursions that kill people, destroy civilian homes and infustructure all over…” Then May 24, 2011 Garcia wrote, “Slavery was ended, apartheid was ended and so this occupation must end.”

Garcia is a Haitian American, and is currently running as a candidate for the State House of Representatives in District 88. She eventually apologized for making the remarks, and said the emails were released by a friend she thought she trusted. County commissioner Burt Aaronson was angered by the comments and said Garcia is entitled to say what she wants but not as a executive of the Democratic party. He said he was offended as a Jew and and supporter of the state of Israel. He was quoted as saying that the Democratic Party would be better off without her. Garcia claims that she submitted her resignation because her presence would serve as a distraction to the good work of Democrats. In 2008 Garcia was a delegate at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado. In the past additional public figures were fired or “resigned” after making controversial remarks about the Israeli occupation, oftentimes due to outside pressure following such comments. 

 In a letter to the Post Garcia said,”My comments were not only inappropriate and hurtful, they are exactly the kind of ugly rhetoric that is not conducive to the overall atmosphere needed to create a prosperous peace and security for both parties. I apologize to anyone I offended and to my friends in the Democratic Party, in particular, members of the Jewish faith whom I have worked with for years.”