Pro-BDS candidates win in two states

US Rep. Rashida Tlaib pictured in 2019. (Alex Wong/Getty)

WASHINGTON — Rashida Tlaib, one of two Congress members to support the boycott Israel movement, defeated a challenger in her Michigan district’s Democratic primary as she bids for a second term.

Media on Aug. 5, declared Tlaib the winner against Brenda Jones, who had preceded her in representing the Detroit-area district.

Tlaib, a Palestinian American, favors a binational state as an outcome of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. She and Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat, favor the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel.

Cori Bush, who on Tuesday unseated Lacy Clay, a longtime incumbent Democrat in a St. Louis-area district, also has indicated she favors BDS.

Bush defeated Gray by three percentage points, 48.6% to 45.5% in the primary Tuesday.

In a now-deleted page on her campaign website, first uncovered by Jewish Insider, Bush expressed support for the BDS movement against Israel.

“In these times, it is important to be specific with our language and direct in the actions we take. In our current geopolitical economy, money talks far louder than speech alone,” the website said. “This is why nonviolent actions like the BDS movement are so important — and why the effort to mischaracterize and demonize the BDS movement by its opponents is so urgent.”

Foreign policy did not feature in the campaign except toward the end. In its final days, Lacy attempted to use Bush’s BDS backing against her, mailing a flyer that highlighted his pro-Israel record. It was headlined “Cori Bush stands with BDS . . . and BDS stands with her.”

Bush was backed by the party’s left, including the Justice Democrats group and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. She became an activist for Black rights after the 2014 police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson. She failed in her first attempt to oust Clay in 2018.

Clay has been a congressman since 2001 and was preceded by his father, Bill Clay, a founder of the Congressional Black Caucus who was elected in 1968. Like the vast majority of representatives, he voted to condemn the BDS movement in a nonbinding vote last year.