Jamaal Bowman Wins

What's that mean for the Palestinian rights movement?

Today, the Associated Press, seen as the gold standard in declaring the victors of elections, made it official: Jamaal Bowman has ousted Eliot Engel, the 16-term incumbent who embodied the Washington consensus on Israel.

AP Politics @AP_Politics

BREAKING: Jamaal Bowman wins Democratic nomination for U.S. House in New York’s 16th congressional district, defeating 16-term U.S. Rep. Eliot Engel. #APracecall at 11:09 a.m. EDT. #Election2020 #NYprimary

apnews.comElection 2020Updates, visuals and in-depth reporting on the 2020 U.S. election from The Associated Press.

This is a monumental loss for the Israel lobby. As I wrote in my preview of the race for +972 Magazine, the pro-Israel groups NORPAC and Democratic Majority for Israel spent millions of dollars to bolster Engel.

But what’s an outright loss for the Israel lobby is more complicated for the broader Palestinian rights movement. I analyzed the implications of Bowman’s win for the movement here, for The Intercept.

Bonus: Read my November 2019 feature for The Intercept on this race and what Engel meant for pro-Israel politics.