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by Andrew Bernard
Darren Bailey, Republican candidate for Governor of Illinois, is seen at a June 2022 rally in Mendon, Ill., headlined by former President Donald Trump. Photo: Reuters/Kate Munsch
State Senator Darren Bailey (R-Il55), the Republican candidate for Illinois governor, made a campaign stop Saturday at the Palestinian American Club of Bridgeview, Illinois where he spoke in front of a map that erased the state of Israel, depicting the entire region as “Palestine.” The map labeled Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine, included Yafo but not Tel Aviv, and restored the Golan Heights to Syria.
In an interview with Palestine TV at the event, Bailey also questioned the constitutionality of legislative measures backed by his opponent Governor JB Pritzker to counter the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel.
“I’ll always stand on the constitution and it sounds like some of those values are being stepped on right now,” Bailey said in his interview with Palestine TV. “And that makes sense, that’s what’s taking place in every aspect of government with this governor of ours. He doesn’t follow the law, he doesn’t follow the constitution. So the constitution will always be front and center. The Muslim community, the Arab community will always have a seat with me as we learn together, work together, and live together.”
The Bailey campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
Bailey has previously garnered criticism for comments he made in 2017 comparing abortion to the Holocaust. “I believe that abortion is one of the greatest atrocities of our day and I believe it’s one of the greatest atrocities probably forever. The attempted extermination of the Jews of World War II doesn’t even compare on a shadow of the life that has been lost with abortion since its legalization,” he said.
In August, Bailey was asked in an interview if the Jewish community was owed an apology for those comments.
“The Jewish community themselves have told me that I am right,” Bailey said. “All the people at the Chabads that we met with and the Jewish rabbis they said, ‘No, you’re actually right.’”
Pritzker, who is Jewish, released a campaign ad seizing on the remarks as “too extreme for Illinois.”
