Over the past two years, pro-Palestinian protesters at Columbia University have faced security crackdowns, academic sanctions, attacks by politicians from both major political parties, and deportation campaigns.
Currently, a large part of the school’s New York City campus will have activists who helped organize protests against Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza represented in the U.S. Congress.
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When the keffiyeh-wearing Dalia-Avila Chevalier first announced her candidacy last November, few outside her immediate circle knew her name.
But her message was clear. She billed herself as an organizer working to unite families torn apart by the immigration system and against “the genocide in Palestine that we all know.”
On Tuesday, Avila Chevalier, backed by New York City Mayor Zoran Mamdani, won the race to unseat veteran Congressman Adriano Espaira, securing the Democratic nomination in one of the biggest upsets of the election cycle.
Supporters say the victories of Avila Chevalier and other candidates supported by Democratic Socialist Mayors demonstrate the waning popularity of pro-Israel politics in Democratic circles.
“Last night there was a political earthquake in New York City that has the Democratic establishment on alert,” said Beth Miller, political director of the advocacy group Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP Action).
“What we have proven is that unabashed support for Palestinian freedom is not just a moral position, but a path to victory for progressive candidates.”
3 wins in primaries
Two other Mamdani-backed candidates also won Tuesday’s U.S. Congress elections.
Former City Comptroller Brad Lander, who opposes military aid to Israel, defeated incumbent Dan Goldman, who is staunchly pro-Israel. Democratic Socialist state representative Claire Valdez won the nomination for the vacant seat.
Both candidates are running in safe Democratic seats and are expected to easily win in November’s general election.
At the local level, voters also elected several vocal critics of Israel, including Aba Kawas, who is well on his way to becoming New York’s first Palestinian state senator.
“What we’re seeing is a real shift in what’s acceptable and desirable in American politics,” said Heba Gowaid, a sociology professor at the City University of New York (CUNY).
Goweid told Al Jazeera that Tuesday’s results, especially Avila Chevalier’s victory over a well-connected incumbent, represent a major defeat for “cynical establishment politics that perceive criticism of Israel as a first-rate move.”
“Americans are going to the polls and saying we don’t want this shit anymore,” she said.
Like Mamdani, he emphasized that the progressive candidates who won in New York did so because they defended Palestinian rights, not because they defended them.
Iman Abid, political director of the United States Campaign for Palestinian Rights Action (USCPR Action), also praised the victory of Avila Chevalier and Valdez.
“Tonight in New York, an anti-Palestinian political system is crumbling before our eyes,” Abid said in a statement. “Brave progressives fighting for justice – for worker rights, affordable housing, immigrant rights, and a free Palestine – won the primaries.”
beyond new york
Polls show that support for Israel has plummeted in the United States, especially among Democrats.
Advocates are therefore confident that the outcome in New York will lead to further victories for the Palestinian rights movement across the United States.
They point to the success of pro-Palestinian candidates this election cycle, such as Chris Love in Pennsylvania and Adam Hamawi in New Jersey.
Love paid tribute to Avila Chevalier and Valdez’s wins on Tuesday.
“Daria Riza knows she needs to invest in babies, not bombs, in immigrants over ICE and renters, not real estate developers,” he wrote to X.
“Together in Congress, we will work to create a DC to serve working families across the country!”
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and other pro-Israel groups have spent tens of millions of dollars to defeat progressive candidates.
But JVP Action’s Miller said standing up to AIPAC, embracing the call for Palestinian freedom and calling for a “complete end to American complicity and Israeli apartheid and genocide” is proving to be a winning message in the Democratic primary.
If the winning pro-Palestinian candidate joins the next Congress in early 2027, it will further widen new rifts in the bipartisan consensus on unconditional support for Israel on Capitol Hill.
But despite the election of lawmakers critical of Israel and shifts in public opinion over the past decade, U.S. policy has remained largely aligned with the Israeli government through Democratic and Republican administrations.
Gowaid said that while changing policy takes time, he emphasized that New York’s election showed that change is possible.
“The reason I feel so good is because we are really against a system that is well-funded and long-lasting,” she told Al Jazeera.
Mr. Miller agreed with that assessment. He said a winning candidate this cycle would not only increase the number of members of Congress who support Palestinian rights, but also send a message to other politicians that “this is a winning message.”
“So my hope is that in the next Congress we can actually get a lot closer to stopping bombs and weapons to Israel,” she said. “We should really raise the ceiling of what we believe is possible.”
