Presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders blasted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a “racist” in front of a national audience at the Democratic debates Thursday night.

The Vermont senator was fielding a question about how he would handle US foreign policy in the Middle East when he made the shocking declaration.

“We must understand that right now in Israel we have leadership who has been indicted for bribery, who, in my view, is a racist,” said Sanders.

Before the accusation, Sanders explained that the US should craft foreign policy that is favorable to both Israel and Palestine.

“Israel has the right not only to exist, but to exist in peace and security,” said Sanders, who spent time on a kibbutz in Israel as a young man.

“But, what US foreign policy must be about is not just being pro-Israel. We must be pro-Palestinian as well.”