Senator Abdul Rahman (Abdul) El-Sayed's most prominent statements on Palestine

مهجر بوست - نيويورك

Abdul Rahman (Abdul) El-Sayed, the winner of Michigan's U.S. Senate seat, said defending Palestinian children's right to life and dignity was love rather than hate. In his victory speech in Detroit early Wednesday, November 4, he renewed his opposition to using American tax dollars to fund war, apartheid and genocide.

The following are his most prominent statements in his victory speech, interviews and campaign platform on Palestine, Israel, weapons, humanitarian assistance and self-determination, with the date and context of each position.

Palestinian children in his victory speech

El-Sayed said, in remarks quoted by Jewish Insider and also reported by Middle East Eye: "They try to call you hateful if you believe that Palestinian kids should get to grow up in the land of their forefathers without being murdered by our tax dollars. If you believe in equal rights to peace, dignity, and self-determination, that's not hate; it's love."

He added, according to Jewish Insider: "We want our taxes spent here, for schools here and healthcare here and infrastructure here. We don't want our money sent to do apartheid or genocide or war."

In the same speech, he addressed the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, AIPAC, saying it had spent $42 million against him and sarcastically thanking it for giving him the opportunity to beat it twice, according to Middle East Eye.

An arms embargo and funding for UNRWA

On his campaign website, in an undated foreign-policy section, El-Sayed supports an immediate arms embargo on Israel, rejects the distinction between offensive and defensive weapons, and calls for enforcing U.S. laws that place conditions on military assistance and weapons sales.

In the same platform, he says American tax dollars and weapons are being used to commit genocide in Gaza, support illegal settlements in the West Bank and Jerusalem, and attempt to annex southern Lebanon. He says this must end.

He rejects direct, blank-check funding for foreign militaries, naming Egypt, Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, among others.

He distinguishes military spending from humanitarian assistance. The same platform supports immediate reinvestment in foreign aid, including to UNRWA, and links reducing deprivation and disease abroad to security and prosperity in the United States.

Offensive and defensive weapons, and conditions on aid

In an August 5 CNN interview with Kaitlan Collins, El-Sayed explained his opposition to U.S. funding for both offensive and defensive weapons for Israel, according to the network's page for the clip. That position is consistent with his platform's rejection of a distinction between the two kinds of weapons when discussing an embargo.

In an August 9 Meet the Press interview, reported by The Forward, he said the United States had provided Israel with unconditional military assistance regardless of the circumstances for years. He added: "It's not just Israel. It's about the conditions."

Asked about circumstances in which he might accept military assistance for Israel, the newspaper reported that he said he could consider it if Israelis and Palestinians reached an agreement guaranteeing equal rights to peace, dignity and self-determination. In the same interview, he linked his support for Ukraine to its defense against a Russian attack that violated its sovereignty.

Equal rights for all children

At a September 15 event hosted by FOX 2 Detroit, El-Sayed was asked about a two-state solution. He said he believed in equal rights to peace, dignity and self-determination for Palestinians and Jewish Israelis alike.

He added: "I believe deeply that every child in the Holy Land, Palestinian or Jewish, deserves to grow up without worrying about whether or not their life is going to be upended by war or apartheid or genocide or terrorism."

Palestine and self-determination

In a July 2 CNN interview with Kasie Hunt, an excerpt of which RealClearPolitics published the following day, he said: "Nobody's ever asked me whether or not I believe Palestine has a right to exist." He added that Israel exists, and that the question for him concerned its entitlement to American tax dollars and the use of that money instead of investing in children in the United States.

In an MS NOW interview conducted in Marquette, Michigan, on October 15 and published the following day, he said he heard no commitment to Palestinian self-determination, ending settlement policies, or remorse for the destruction of Gaza. He was responding to a question about whether a change in Benjamin Netanyahu's leadership would alter his position on the relationship with Israel.

Israel, Netanyahu, settlements and Gaza

In that October MS NOW interview, he said Netanyahu was one part of the problem. He accused the Israeli military of war crimes and genocide, and questioned whether the United States should support that government.

He said Israel was using the United States to obtain American tax dollars and provide cover at the United Nations, as well as before the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice, according to the interview transcript.

In an October 20 ABC News interview with Linsey Davis, he said: "An ally that takes your money to push you into wars you shouldn't be fighting is not an ally." He added that it was time for Americans to recognize that "Israel is not actually our friend." The network reported that the White House strongly denied that Israel had pushed the United States into war in Iran.

In an October NewsNation interview, El-Sayed also linked the war in Iran to Netanyahu's call for it, and discussed its cost in gasoline and food prices alongside U.S. military assistance to Israel.

AIPAC, and distinguishing Israel from Jewish people

In addition to his criticism of AIPAC in his victory speech, El-Sayed said in the July CNN interview that the committee had become a major player in the election and had spent $30 million, according to the excerpt published by RealClearPolitics. He gave that figure in the context of the primary election, while citing a different amount in his November victory speech.

In the August Meet the Press interview, responding to Donald Trump's accusation that he hated Israel and Jewish people, El-Sayed said he loved and revered Judaism and Jewish people. He spoke about attending Jewish religious and social occasions while growing up in Michigan, then distinguished Jewish people from AIPAC and Israel, according to The Forward.

Schools instead of war

In a NewsNation interview recorded on October 6 and published the following day, he said: "We want a world with less war. We want a world where our money is spent to build our schools here rather than to fund war and apartheid and genocide abroad. We want a world where all kids get to live their best, most dignified life."

He returned to the idea at an October 29 rally in Kalamazoo, according to PolitiFact: paying taxes and knowing they would be spent on families and their children, rather than dropping bombs on other people and their children, should not be so difficult.