The Democrats gathered at an Upper West Side election night watch party on Tuesday knew they had pulled off something big. Darializa Avila Chevalier, a democratic socialist running for Congress with the backing of Mayor Zohran Mamdani, had just unseated a five-term congressman.<\/p>\n
It was a moment to celebrate progressive ideals, a sweep of congressional primaries by three candidates endorsed by the mayor. And for the many pro-Palestinian voters who backed Mr. Mamdani\u2019s slate, it was a moment that seemed to validate the core ideals of their cause.<\/p>\n
Ms. Avila Chevalier and the other two victorious House candidates \u2014 Brad Lander and Claire Valdez \u2014 backed by Mr. Mamdani are staunch critics of Israel\u2019s treatment of Palestinians, and made their support for the Palestinian cause core to their campaign messages.<\/p>\n
The magnitude of the primary results was especially striking to one well-known figure who was warmly greeted as he entered the watch party: Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University graduate student who organized pro-Palestinian demonstrations alongside Ms. Avila Chevalier, and became a symbol of the movement after his arrest and detention by the Trump administration for his activism.<\/p>\n
Mr. Khalil said that the success of candidates like Ms. Avila Chevalier marked a meaningful step forward for the movement they helped lead.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the past, the question was: \u2018OK, now we shifted public opinion on Palestine. What\u2019s next?\u2019\u201d he said in an interview. \u201cAnd I believe this is part of the \u2018what\u2019s next,\u2019 which is converting the public support into real political power, whether on the local level or on the federal level.\u201d<\/p>\n
The wave of support for these pro-Palestinian candidates has altered a longstanding tradition among local leaders to support Israel in New York, home to the largest population of Jews outside of Israel. Some Jewish leaders<\/a> have expressed alarm that the anti-Israel sentiment has fueled a rise of antisemitic attacks.<\/p>\n It is a remarkable shift from just a decade ago, when candidates who ran on an unabashedly pro-Palestinian platform were hushed down or deemed unviable in the face of a political status quo that demanded support for Israel.<\/p>\n Now, amid widespread discontent with establishment Democrats and eroding support for Israel among voters from both parties<\/a>, a new crop of pro-Palestinian candidates who won state legislative or House primaries in New York has forged a new path for a movement that found its footing on college campuses and in the streets, rather than the halls of power. Their growing influence may help reshape how U.S. politicians approach the Middle East.<\/p>\n For Khader El-Yateem, a Palestinian Lutheran priest who ran unsuccessfully for City Council in 2017, the election results on Tuesday were something of a victory deferred. He ran on a campaign message that emphasized Palestinian rights and embraced the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel. He lost by roughly seven percentage points.<\/p>\n \u201cWe ran on issues that meant something,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I think people who are running for office are deeply committed to this nonviolence resistance of the Israeli occupation of Palestine.\u201d<\/p>\n Aber Kawas, a Queens-based community organizer who spent years working in the city\u2019s Arab and Muslim communities, won the Democratic primary for a State Senate seat on Tuesday. If she, as expected, wins in November, she will be the first Palestinian woman elected to state office in New York history.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t want to see one more person enter into office, especially into a progressive district, where they wouldn\u2019t speak out on this issue,\u201d Ms. Kawas said, adding that it would be difficult for Democratic leaders to deliver an affordability agenda \u201cif we can\u2019t draw the line at genocide.\u201d<\/p>\n Like Ms. Avila Chevalier, the two other pro-Palestinian congressional candidates who received Mr. Mamdani\u2019s support have deep roots in the movement. Mr. Lander, the former city comptroller who ousted Representative Dan Goldman in the 10th District, is a self-described \u201cliberal Zionist\u201d who has been an outspoken opponent<\/a> of Israel\u2019s actions in the war in Gaza. And Ms. Valdez, a state assemblywoman, also supports the B.D.S. movement.<\/p>\n All three candidates have described the Israeli government\u2019s actions in Gaza as genocide, in line with findings from Israeli and international human rights groups as well as two United Nations commissions<\/a>. The two incumbents who lost, Representatives Adriano Espaillat and Mr. Goldman, had been supported by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and disagree with the characterizations of Israel\u2019s actions as a genocide. Mr. Goldman and Mr. Lander are both Jewish.<\/p>\n The influence of the movement itself was palpable throughout the campaign. Many of the volunteers and canvassers for pro-Palestinian candidates also participated in protests for Palestinian rights. At several victory parties on Tuesday night, including Ms. Avila Chevalier\u2019s, chants of \u201cFree Palestine!\u201d could be heard amid cheers for the winning candidates.<\/p>\n Beth Miller, the political director of Jewish Voice for Peace Action, which supported Ms. Valdez and Ms. Avila Chevalier\u2019s campaigns, said many of its members \u201cwho have been doing advocacy work to push our elected officials to try to get them to change \u2014 often with little results \u2014 have seen opportunities to get pro-Palestine champions who we know and who we have worked with over the years into office directly.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, several of the candidates, should they win in November, will enter office with limited experience in electoral politics, setting up a test of their movement\u2019s staying power at the legislative level.<\/p>\n Some of them will have to answer questions about their actions in support of the Palestinian cause. Ms. Avila Chevalier was widely criticized for going to a rally for Palestinian rights just a day after the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas that killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli officials.<\/p>\n But Israel\u2019s extended response to the attacks has, over time, caused alliances to shift, with more Americans now holding unfavorable views of Israel and the U.S. government\u2019s support of the country.<\/p>\n