United States Vice President Kamala Harris’s use of wine from the Psagot Winery in the West Bank at her Passover Seder sparked social media controversy over the weekend, with her office clarifying that she was not making a political statement in favor of settlements.
“Huge yikes: Kamala Harris @VP served wine from Psagot at her Passover Seder,” tweeted Michael Bueckert, vice president of the NGO Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East, as he highlighted the political faux pas.
“It is produced in an illegal Israeli settlement which is colonizing the occupied West Bank. This demonstrates serious contempt for Palestinians and int’l law,” he added.
Huge yikes: Kamala Harris @VP served wine from Psagot at her Passover Seder. It is produced in an illegal Israeli settlement which is colonizing the occupied West Bank. This demonstrates serious contempt for Palestinians and int’l law. https://t.co/UvUMG7bEeI
— Michael Bueckert (@mbueckert) April 16, 2022
The Psagot wine bottles, however, were not intended to symbolize any political stance by Harris, particularly given that the Biden administration frowns on settlement activity.
“The wine served at the Seder was in no way intended to be an expression of policy,” said Harris’s senior adviser for communications Herbie Ziskend.
The wine served at the Seder was in no way intended to be an expression of policy. https://t.co/ONLP3UU0ZF
— Herbie Ziskend (@HerbieZiskend46) April 17, 2022
The presence of the settler wine was brought to light after Harris and her husband, Douglas Emhoff, both tweeted statements and photographs of their Seder.
This evening the @SecondGentleman and I hosted a Passover Seder at our home and recounted one of humankind’s most inspiring stories. By retelling the Israelites’ journey from oppression to freedom, we remind ourselves that we must always keep the faith and fight for others. pic.twitter.com/VRx9p9yspC
— Vice President Kamala Harris (@VP) April 16, 2022
Emhoff tweeted, “Tonight, @VP and I were honored to celebrate Passover with our hardworking staff by holding a Seder at the Vice President’s Residence.
Tonight, @VP and I were honored to celebrate Passover with our hardworking staff by holding a Seder at the Vice President’s Residence. Whether you’re celebrating with your family, your work family, or the family you have chosen, we wish you all a Happy Passover! pic.twitter.com/g9qLOHqFUM
— Douglas Emhoff (@SecondGentleman) April 16, 2022
Emhoff tweeted, “Tonight, @VP and I were honored to celebrate Passover with our hardworking staff by holding a Seder at the Vice President’s Residence.
“Whether you’re celebrating with your family, your work family, or the family you have chosen, we wish you all a Happy Passover!” he wrote.
The photograph he attached showed himself, the VP and their guests standing around a traditional Passover table, with matzot, wine glasses and a traditional Seder plate. There were also some alternative symbols such as an orange, which represents the importance of ensuring the full inclusion of women and the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community in Jewish traditions.
Present in both Emhoff’s and Harris’s photographs were bottles from the Psagot Winery located in the Sha’ar Binyamin Industrial Park in the West Bank, just outside of Jerusalem.
Judea and Samaria has become well-known for its thriving kosher wine industry. But out of all the vineyards, the one in Psagot has been most associated with US politics and the battle both for Israeli sovereignty over West Bank settlements and against the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.
THE PSAGOT WINERY pushed back at the European Union’s attempts not to recognize that its products were produced in Israel. It lost its battle in 2019, when the Court of Justice of the European Union said that goods produced over the pre-1967 lines must be marked as settlement products.
That battle, however, caught the attention of the Trump administration, particularly former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo.
In November 2020, Pompeo made the first-ever trip by a secretary of state to a settler entity in the West Bank, when he visited the Psagot Winery. During the visit, he announced that the US would allow settlement goods such as Psagot wines to be labeled as Israeli products.
The winery issued a special 2020 wine named for Pompeo who, after he left office, made a second visit to the winery in October 2021.
David Friedman, who was the US ambassador to Israel during the Trump administration, tweeted about Harris’s Passover wine choice.
“Next year I would recommend that the Second Family serve the ‘Friedman’ vintage from the Psagot Winery. I may be biased but I think it’s very good,” he wrote.
The Psagot Winery was founded in 2003 by Yaakov and Na’ama Berg. On their website, they tell the story of how, during the construction of their winery, they found a cave with a coin dating to the Great Revolt of 66-73 CE that had the words “For Freedom of Zion” printed on it.
That coin became the emblem for their wines and is on all their bottles, including the ones that were on Harris’s Seder table.
Na’ama Berg said, “We are happy that they appreciate our wine, which is one of the best wines in the world.”
It was clear to her, however, that from a political perspective, if Harris and her husband had known that the wine was produced in Judea and Samaria, they would not have used it.
“[From] their point of view all the wrong things happened,” Berg said, explaining that the wine was purchased, put on their table and then they took photographs.
That included a photograph of the coin, which Berg said, has symbolized “the return of the Jewish people to their homeland.”
For her and her husband continents away from Washington, “the main thing that came to our mind the moment that we heard about it is that nothing in this world happens by coincidence.”
The presence of the wine at such an important Seder table, she said, is proof that “the truth always finds a way to show itself.”