Haley Stevens urges Democrats to hold steady on Israel

For U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Birmingham), support for Israel was never just a campaign slogan. As she stares down her final months in Congress, she’s doubling down on her support for the nation, its people and Jewish Americans across the nation as antisemitism and the war in Gaza continues to loom large in politics, especially within the Democratic Party.

The soon-to-be retired Michigan representative lost the U.S. Senate primary race for the U.S. Senate to nominee Abdul El-Sayed, and the contrast between them on the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, increasingly labeled a genocide by many Democrats, was one of the major flashpoints in the campaign.

Stevens was heavily backed by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, and which became a hurdle for her campaign as support in the United States for Israel wanes. 

El-Sayed, in turn, focused on AIPAC’s influence in the race, and the turning tide of public opinion on the plight of the Palestinian people.

El-Sayed is one of several emerging Democratic Party candidates who have called for ending military aid to Israel, or at least conditioning it so it does not help perpetuate Israel’s fight against Hamas, the terrorist organization that has governed Gaza for nearly two decades and started the war with the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks that killed about 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians. The ensuing war has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and displaced some 2.1 million according to the United Nations.

Although El-Sayed faces new challenges with Jewish voters, some of whom have vowed to support his opponent, Republican Mike Rogers, Stevens has been targeted by activists over her support for Israel even as she exits public life.

Following a trip to Israel after her campaign for the U.S. Senate, Stevens reiterated her support for the nation in a U.S. House floor speech. Last week,  she was harassed by an activist from Code Pink and another individual who did not identify themselves, Stevens’ office told Michigan Advance.

Video from one of the confrontations showed a person aggressively accusing Stevens of supporting the bombing of Palestinian children in the midst of a supposed cease fire between Israel and Hamas. The encounter shows Stevens pushing back. 

Stevens said in the video clip that she still supports a two-state solution. When the person claimed Stevens supported a genocide, Stevens responded by saying that there was no genocide ocurring in Gaza.

Reporter: You support genocide.

Haley Stevens: There’s no genocide.

Reporter: You don’t care about the ethnic cleansing.

Haley Stevens: There is no genocide going on, sir.

Reporter: You don’t care about women being raped, men being raped.

Haley Stevens: There’s no genocide… pic.twitter.com/FIe9CaZksU

— Ounka (@OunkaOnX) September 17, 2026

The social media influencer called Stevens “disgusting,” but Stevens responded that anti-Zionism is a hate movement. The influencer responded by saying, “We will see you at the gallows.”

El-Sayed, on Sept. 19, released a statement condemning the incidents.

“Congresswoman Stevens and I might disagree on some important things — but we agree on so much more,” El-Sayed said. “If we believe in a more peaceful and just world, we have to express our disagreements without harassment or aggression. Harassment like the kind she’s experienced is unkind and unproductive, and it puts her personal safety at risk. This behavior is not representative of our movement and should cease immediately.”

When a vacation teaches lessons on humanity

In an interview with the Advance, Stevens said that she visited Israel soon after her campaign for the U.S. Senate ended. She made the journey almost on a whim, as she was traveling in Italy with her mother and her new fiancé, who is Jewish and has close familial ties to Israel. 

Stevens has been on the Congress hostage task force since 2022. Her role on the committee broadened to Israel after the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on the Nova Music Festival, when Hamas massacred nearly 400 concertgoers and took hostages at an electronic music event near Kibbutz Re’im in the southern portion of Israel.

Her position with the Congressional task force allowed her to coordinate with Israel Seminars, which sometimes helps plan trips for members of Congress and other dignitaries. 

She met with people who were held hostage by Hamas, including a 24-year-old woman who was captive for 728 days. She met with Israeli military leaders and was shown border crossings where food assistance travels into the nation and into Gaza.

The trip further bolstered Stevens’ Israeli support but also illustrated the hardships of the war for people on both sides.

“People have a lot of criticisms,” Stevens told the Advance. “I certainly and rightfully do, and the people who live there do, too. Hamas, who started the war, still hasn’t put down their weapons … and you don’t have peace yet.”

Seeing t innocent people still being harmed on both sides affected her deeply, Stevens said. She also visited Gaza, but was limited in what she was able to see.

“People don’t really get in there,” Stevens said. “It’s not a state government. You’re on the Egypt-Israel-Gaza border. You can see them all and it’s very interesting. … I looked out in Gaza and toured around with a 22-year-old gal who wants nothing more than peace.”

From there, she visited Hadassah Medical Center, the main medical organization with hospital campuses in Israel. She was surprised at how many people from Michigan were involved in the operation, and by how the hospital included both Israeli and Palestinian doctors working side by side to heal the sick and wounded.

“Here’s the humanity,” Stevens told the Advance. “The humanity of people outside of governments, or whatever we call Hamas, this rogue non-state group, with a purpose.”

Stevens told the Advance that those glimpses helped her further understand the plight of oppressed people in Palestine, but also the fact that many Israelis do not want continued war with its neighbors.

“They all deserve and want peace,” Stevens said. “I have always taken very seriously what it means to be a federal representative, someone who holds that voting card, who carries the weight, the hopes and dreams and the aspirations of a state, a congressional district, of a country, to do the best I can.”

A not-so-warm welcome at home

When she returned back to the United States Sept. 2, she gave a floor speech in the U.S. House of Representatives, calling on her fellow lawmakers — and specifically Democrats — to continue supporting Israel.

“We do not have to choose whose humanity matters,” Stevens said “I stood at the Nova Festival site where young people went to dance and 364 never came home. I walked through Kibbutz Kfar Aza and saw the remains of bloodshed and attacks on peaceful people, and I sat across from people who survived captivity and somehow found the courage to tell us what it means to come home. Their humanity matters. I also met World Central Kitchen workers feeding Palestinian families in Gaza, and at Karem Shalom, I saw the urgent work of getting food and medicine to innocent people trapped in a war they did not choose. Their humanity matters too.”

“We can mourn the victims of Oct.  7 and demand dignity for innocent Palestinians,” Stevens added. “We can demand security for Israelis and humanitarian relief for Gaza. And when the world asks us to choose whose humanity matters, America should have the answer: Everyone’s.”

Weeks later, on Sept. 15, Stevens was leaving her post on the House Science Committee following a hearing. She was approached by an activist from Code Pink and also a social media influencer, who Stevens called “rogue, paid actors” attempting to intimidate her.

On social media, Stevens reiterated that she would not be backing down in the face of harassment.

“Let me be clear: I have always wanted the wars in the Middle East to end. I believe in a two-state solution that gives Israelis and Palestinians peace, security, dignity and a home. People are free to disagree with me, challenge me, and protest my positions. That is democracy,” Stevens wrote. “But disagreement is not license for intimidation or harassment. I’m not on the ballot anymore. So, what exactly are we accomplishing by continuing to tear each other apart?”

Stevens added that “there is too much at stake to spend our energy villainizing people on our own side or like me who are not coming back to Congress.

“We should be putting our energy into protecting Social Security, defending voting rights, lowering costs, standing up for science, and defending the people who sent us here,” Stevens wrote. “Disagreement is democracy. Intimidation isn’t. Let’s get back to work.”

Despite some Democrats choosing to step away from Israel, Stevens said she still believes that Israel is an ally of the United States — even as she maintains Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “has some real problems and hasn’t done a great job, and has failed in terms of the goal of long-term peace.”

Michigan Democrats continue to grapple with Israel and Palestine

Speaking to the Advance, Stevens said she will continue to stand steadfast with Israel with what little time left she has in office.

“Why would we choose and accept it as normal to just hate one country, one tiny country that is the size of New Jersey? It is not responsible for all of Michigan or America’s problems,” Stevens said. “And in fact, the way that aid packages have always worked is that it is not blank checks. It is not even a direct check. It is money invested into our small businesses from materials, tools, equipment, information technology that then gets sent over to a chosen ally.”

It’s a question that the Michigan Democratic Party, and Democrats nationally, are still grappling with as the 2026 general election looms on the horizon. Democrats are making a push to try and take back the majority in both chambers of Congress, and the issue of Israel and Palestine continues to be a flashpoint in some of those campaigns — namely, the U.S. Senate race in Michigan.

Nura Sediqe, an assistant professor for Michigan State University’s political science department with a focus on Muslim studies, said that the Democratic Party has an ingrained “big tent” mentality that aims to draw in as many diverse voters as possible.

That has some caveats, as there are generational divides between younger and older Democratic voters on their policy preferences and values.

“The interests of southeast Michigan and their voter preferences, as we found at least with polling data, look a lot different than what you can find in Northern Michigan,” Sediqe said. “So in a lot of ways, especially in states like Michgian, it’s almost a case study of what’s happening or playing out in the country.”

Sediqe said Michigan Democrats have relied on their older constituent spaces for votes, but there are now much younger and much more vocal elements of the party speaking out and turning out in ways the party hasn’t traditionally seen.

The Israel-Gaza divide was a palpable example of that new push and pull, and Sediqe said some of the double talk from Democrats — supporting Israel but also calling for awareness of the plight in Palestine — was just an example of Democrats being cautious.

“They really need to win the next election, and it’s a high risk to go all in and expect those people, who say they’re going to show up, who are advocating for this different policy stance, to show up,” Sediqe told the Advance. “They’re trying to do enough to satisfy a broad spectrum of voters and do enough to satisfy young people.”

If they do too much, Sediqe said, then the older generations of Democrats who are more in line with Stevens foreign policy stance may not show up to vote on Nov. 3, either.

“They are hedging their bets and I think they are nervous,” she added. “Chuck Schumer is very invested. Everyone’s met with Abdul, and I think they’re invested in the race. If it didn’t hinge so much on Michigan in this way, I think there’d be less pressure.”