Mark Pocan
D · U.S. House, WI-2 · Tier 4
Tier 4, “Critical / conditions aid”
A named co-lead of Block the Bombs (not just a cosponsor), genocide-resolution cosponsor, and a Nay on the Israel aid supplemental — one of the strongest records of conditioning arms in the House. He works within a two-state, both-peoples frame, though, and his conditioning targets offensive arms only — he has not called for a full arms embargo, BDS, or taken an anti-Zionist position, and his one vote to cut off Israel’s military financing was an Aye on the July 15, 2026 Massie amendment (roll 243). In 2024 he signed letters urging the State Department to affirm U.S. opposition to the forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza (January), backing refugee status for Gazans with U.S. citizen or permanent-resident relatives (June) and urging sanctions on Israeli ministers Smotrich and Ben-Gvir over incitement of settler violence (October). Between March 2025 and January 2026 he signed letters demanding answers on the detentions of the student activists Mahmoud Khalil and Rümeysa Öztürk (March 2025) and Mohsen Mahdawi (April 2025), condemning the Israeli government’s use of starvation as a weapon in Gaza and rejecting the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (Tlaib’s 19-signer letter, June 2025), urging Secretary Rubio to press Israel to allow a surge of aid into Gaza, above all infant formula (August 2025), opposing West Bank annexation with most House Democrats (September 2025) and asking the administration to warn Israel off annexation and the E-1 settlement and to reimpose Biden-era West Bank sanctions (January 2026). Pocan co-led, with Mike Quigley, a 41-member letter to Secretary Rubio (Sep 24, 2026) urging the release of Palestinian medical workers held without charge, which says their detention “appears to represent part of a pattern by the Israeli government to further dismantle the healthcare systems in Gaza and the West Bank.” In September 2026 Pocan also signed the Dexter–Ruiz letter seeking the release of Gaza pediatrician Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya from Israeli detention without charge (Sep 8) and a 72-member letter urging Netanyahu to contain settler violence in the West Bank and “halt further settlement approvals” (Sep 24). On Oct 1, 2026 Pocan became an original cosponsor of the Stop the Settlements Act (H.R.10642), which would sanction those who build or expand Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza and ban imports of settlement goods. On Bluesky he called Israeli settlements “illegal land grabs that are violently displacing Palestinians from their homes” (Oct 2, 2026) and congratulated Navi Pillay on the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize, citing her work “with the U.N. investigating Israeli genocide against the Palestinians” (Oct 9, 2026). In 2016 he went on the Humpty Dumpty Institute’s first congressional trip to Palestine, which he said “opened my eyes about what was going on”; Israel’s Coordination and Liaison Administration refused him, Hank Johnson and Dan Kildee entry to Gaza, and in April 2018 the three wrote to Ambassador Ron Dermer asking to be let in. On a J Street delegation in November 2021 he visited the West Bank village of Susya with the Palestinian activist Nasser Nawajah and Breaking the Silence’s Avner Gvaryahu, and afterward wrote, in a post Jewish Insider quoted, “We will be watching to make sure no violence occurs this weekend or anytime.” In June 2026 Pocan signed a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, led by Reps. Becca Balint and Joaquin Castro, on Israel’s operations in southern Lebanon, saying Israel’s “targeted, mass destruction of civilian homes and infrastructure does not constitute Israeli self-defense” and asking that, if U.S.-origin arms were confirmed in those operations, the administration “stop arms transfers being used in these operations until these violations cease”; the letter also affirmed that “Israel has a right to defend itself.” Jewish Insider reported on Oct 23, 2026 that Pocan was among about 30 signers of a draft letter, led by Rep. Ro Khanna and gathering signatures through Nov 6, urging the negotiators of the 2027 defense authorization bill to strip its U.S.-Israel defense-technology cooperation provisions; the draft, which cites Israel’s conduct in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon, says “These are not the actions of a government whose defense establishment should be granted deeper access to American military technology, nor rewarded with U.S. defense contracts,” and asks that any framework kept “carry human rights conditions consistent with those governing other United States security assistance.” On the eve of Israel’s Oct 27 election he told Punchbowl News (Oct 26, 2026): “Even the most ardent, so-called pro-Israel Democrats have been pretty unequivocal in their opposition to Netanyahu,” and “I think it would be hard to put military aid on the floor and get votes for it because I think if you have that many Democrats against it, they’ll put it on the floor just to get Republican votes to pass it.” On election day, Oct 27, 2026, he wrote: “Regardless of the election outcome, Israel MUST end the genocide in Gaza and violence against Palestinians by settlers in the West Bank.” On the evening of Oct 28, sharing a Politico report headlined “Netanyahu claims stolen election amid failure to secure victory,” he called Netanyahu, with an expletive, a “bigot” and wrote: “Lose an election? Blame Arabs. If he somehow scams his way into power, Israel loses big time. He and Trump are made for each other.”
A Tier 4, on many counts. He co-led Block the Bombs, cosponsored the genocide resolution, voted Nay on the aid supplemental and the Hamas-financing bill, and cosponsored blocking a $12B weapons package and restoring UNRWA funding. He does not reach 4/5: his Block the Bombs is offensive-only, and he keeps to a two-state, both-peoples frame with no full arms embargo, BDS, or anti-Zionist position. He voted for the July 15, 2026 Massie amendment stripping Israel’s military financing from the FY27 foreign-operations bill (roll 243) and signed the 27-member statement led by Jim McGovern, which grounds the vote in nearly six decades of occupation and in human-rights conditions that “have not been meaningfully enforced”, but 103 Democrats voted Aye, leadership did not whip it, and the Leader, Caucus Chair and Vice Chair all voted No while the Whip voted Aye, and the statement itself carves out non-military aid.
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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).