Two-term representative defeated in a race where pro-Israel campaign contributions helped oust a member of the left-wing ‘Squad’ from the US Congress.
US Representative Cori Bush, a fierce critic of Israel’s war in Gaza, lost the Democratic congressional primary in a race that saw a massive influx of money from pro-Israel groups to defeat a member of the left-wing “Squad” of Israel. Congress.
Bush, a congresswoman from Missouri, lost Tuesday’s primary to St. Louis prosecutor Wesley Bell, who won about 51.2 percent of the vote to her 45.6 percent.
“We will stand up for what is right, no matter the cost,” Bush said Tuesday night in a defiant concession speech posted on social media.
“I just hope he [Bell] in fact, it takes time to learn about our Palestinian, Arab and Muslim community.”
Bush’s defeat followed an onslaught by pro-Israel groups such as the American-Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and its Super PAC affiliate, the United Democratic Project (UDP), which together invested about 8 .5 million dollars to bring it down.
It was the latest successful effort by powerful pro-Israel lobbies to oust lawmakers who criticize Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza, which has killed nearly 40,000 people, mostly women and children, and triggered numerous allegations of war crimes committed. by Israeli forces, including the systematic use of torture.
Bush introduced a resolution in Congress calling for a ceasefire in Gaza just weeks after the war began, saying Israel was waging a “campaign of ethnic cleansing” in the Palestinian territory.
She boycotted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to a joint session of Congress last month, saying that attending would be celebrating a “war criminal” at the forefront of a “genocide.”
In June, fellow progressive Jamal Bowman, also a critic of the war in Gaza, was defeated by a pro-Israel opponent in the primary after the UDP spent about $15 million on the race.
While the defeats of Bowman and Bush show that pro-Israel groups in the US still have the ability to influence key races, they have also failed to reverse a trend of greater sympathy for the plight of Palestinians among Democratic voters.
A 2023 Gallup poll revealed an 11-point swing in favor of sympathy for Palestinians and disengagement from Israel, and several progressive lawmakers called for an end to U.S. support for Israel’s war in Gaza.
During the Democratic presidential primaries, the “uncommitted” movement, which urged voters in a number of states to mark “uncommitted” on their ballots in protest against President Joe Biden’s support for the war, consistently exceeded expectations.
A pastor and nurse, Bush became a Black Lives Matter activist and led protests following the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014.
During his concession speech, Bush said he would continue to support “a free Palestine,” to which the crowd responded with chants of “Free, free Palestine.”
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
