Aber Kawas
D · New York State Senate, District 12 · Tier 6
Tier 6, “Most critical of Israel / supports Palestine”
Palestinian-American organizer and democratic socialist in the open SD-12; daughter of Palestinian refugees and would be the first Palestinian American in the NY legislature. Helped write the original “Not on Our Dime” campaign with Mamdani to stop NY nonprofits funding settlement activity. DSA-endorsed; backed by Mamdani, Sanders, and Tlaib. Kawas was arrested at the Sep 24, 2026 JVP sit-in outside the UN, where she called Netanyahu “the architect of a genocide that has been going on over three years of the Palestinian people.” On October 28, 2026 she wrote that “The NYPD should not be entering into a contract with Israeli surveillance firm Cognyte,” citing the department’s “long history of mass surveillance of Muslim communities, Palestine solidarity activists, and communities of color.”
A clean Tier 6: explicit anti-Zionist self-ID plus BDS by name, with no hedge. She self-identifies as an anti-Zionist (“I would identify as an anti-Zionist. I would identify as somebody who is fighting for and who believes in Palestinian freedom and agency, somebody who wants an end to the occupation and apartheid and genocide in Palestine that’s happening right now.”), pledges in her platform to “fight back against attacks on the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement,” and frames Gaza as genocide and Israel’s conduct as apartheid: in a September 2026 op-ed she wrote that “Israel’s apartheid regime didn’t start when it invaded Gaza after Oct. 7; it has existed for more than 78 years” and called for using “all of the tools at our disposal to cut off U.S. support for the state of Israel.” She helped write Not on Our Dime and says she would cosponsor it.
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elect26 places 2026 midterm candidates on a six-tier spectrum, from 1 (most pro-Israel) to 6 (most critical of Israel).