Barack Obama Says Israel Took Land From Palestinians During Belfast Remarks: 10 outlets compared

Obama in Belfast

Former U.S. President Barack Obama criticized Israel’s handling of the Palestinian people during remarks in Belfast, Northern Ireland, where he received an honorary doctorate from Queen’s University Belfast.

What some reports left out

Hot Press ties Obama remarks to Northern Ireland Good Friday Agreement

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Obama told journalist Susan McKay that Palestinians “rightly said: this is injustice, and I want my land back,” while discussing Israel’s “cultural and military control over the state of Israel.”

Obama said the hostility toward Israel after the October 7 attack showed the need to reach a real ceasefire to implement long-term solutions.

Obama argued that the Jewish people “took land from people and were excessive about it,” and he said that approach “may work in the short term” but would mean Israel “have lost the moral ground.”

Moral ground and nonviolence

Obama said Israel had “ceded moral ground” by relying on military and technological superiority without making concessions to Palestinians. Obama warned that if Israel’s security depended on “simply doing whatever we need and taking whatever we want, and not making any concessions to anyone,” then Israel would face a “disaster for you long-term.”

Obama urged Palestinians to pursue change through moral and ethical claims and “mobilizing and nonviolent strategies,” while saying that “that’s going to take some time.” Obama also told the audience that Palestinians would not be able to “outperform in killing” or “outperform in arming” Israelis, and he said the region needed a “genuine cessation” of violence before long-term solutions could proceed.

Backlash and what’s at risk

Conservative and pro-Israel commentators criticized Obama’s remarks after he said Jews who sought refuge from persecution “took land off people” and “were excessive.” The Daily Wire published an article accusing Obama of erasing more than 3,000 years of Jewish history and presenting a revisionist account of Israel’s establishment, while HonestReporting criticized the remarks for omitting “both the Jewish people’s millennia-old connection to the land and centuries of continuous Jewish presence there.”

Obama said he believed Israel’s current government appeared to have adopted an approach that could succeed “short term” but undermine Israel’s moral standing. Obama said his immediate priorities included “relieving suffering,” “an actual end to violence,” stopping “the current ongoing encroachment into the West Bank,” and helping Gaza to rebuild.