Obama Blasted for Claiming Jews ‘Took Land Off People’

“What is also undeniable is that they took land off people and they were excessive,” Obama said.

By United with Israel Staff

Former President Barack Obama sparked backlash after claiming that Jews who sought refuge from persecution “took land off people” and “were excessive,” prompting accusations that he erased thousands of years of Jewish history in the Land of Israel.

Obama made the remarks Tuesday during a conversation with journalist Susan McKay before thousands of people at The O2 Belfast.

“The fact is that the Jewish people, for millennia, were oppressed, discriminated against, killed. Europe was responsible for much of it. They understandably sought a refuge,” Obama said.

“That is undeniable. What is also undeniable is that they took land off people and they were excessive. And those people understandably said, ‘This is injustice and I want my land back.’”

The characterization portrayed Israel’s establishment largely through the lens of European Jewish persecution, omitting the Jewish people’s millennia-old connection to their ancestral homeland and centuries of continuous Jewish presence there.

Obama went on to accuse Israel’s current government of having “ceded moral ground.”

“If the attitude of Israel is, now that we are the strongest, the most technologically advanced in the region, then our security will depend on us simply doing whatever we need and taking whatever we want, and not making any concessions to anyone,” he said.

“That may work short-term… but you have ceded moral ground if that is the position you take.

“I would say the current Israeli government appears to have taken that.”

Pro-Israel media watchdog HonestReporting blasted Obama’s characterization.

“According to @BarackObama, Jews fled Europe, arrived in someone else’s land and became ‘excessive,’” the organization wrote on X.

“Conveniently missing: The Jewish people’s millennia-old connection to the Land of Israel and centuries of continuous Jewish presence there.

“Israel’s legitimacy did not begin with European persecution.

“Neither did Jewish history.”

According to @BarackObama, Jews fled Europe, arrived in someone else’s land and became “excessive.”

Conveniently missing: The Jewish people’s millennia-old connection to the Land of Israel and centuries of continuous Jewish presence there.

Israel’s legitimacy did not begin with European persecution.

Neither did Jewish history.

— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) October 14, 2026

Obama had a frequently contentious relationship with Israel during his presidency, clashing with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the Iran nuclear deal, Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria and the Palestinian issue.

His administration also controversially declined to veto UN Security Council Resolution 2334 in its final weeks, allowing a resolution declaring Israeli communities beyond the 1949 armistice lines to have “no legal validity” to pass.

Obama did, however, sharply criticize Hamas during the Belfast discussion, saying its October 7 massacre could hardly have been better designed to undermine the possibility of meaningful change.