Beginning with the 2022 midterm congressional elections, AJP Action plans to endorse candidates for office whose positions toward Israel and the Palestinian people broadly align with our principles and our mission.
In making a determination to endorse candidates, AJP Action will evaluate their responses to our questionnaire, the positions they’ve taken as a candidate, and their voting records and statements on the issue if they are already elected officials.
The ideal candidate for AJP Action’s endorsement will fully align with our principles and our mission of ending Israel’s oppression of the Palestinian people through its settler-colonialism, apartheid, and military occupation; backing the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination; and ending all forms of US support for Israel until Palestinians achieve their long-denied rights to freedom, justice, and equality.
The number of candidates who do fully align with these goals is increasing, and, through our engagement in the electoral system, we hope to further grow the circle of elected officials who unabashedly center and advocate for Palestinian rights.
AJP Action does not impose any particular litmus test on candidates in order for them to receive its endorsement. Instead, in making our endorsements, we evaluate where the candidates currently stand, their willingness to engage on the issue and to be challenged to reevaluate what often passes in Washington, DC as uncritical, conventional wisdom, and the record of their opponents.
We also understand that political advocacy organizations that endorse candidates who support Israel’s oppression of the Palestinian people have a decades-long head start over us in the electoral arena. We recognize that changing hearts and minds is a long-term process of both education and flexing our political muscles.
Our endorsement of candidates does not necessarily mean that we are fully in agreement right now, but is an indication of our faith that through our engagement with them that we will see eye to eye in the future.
Endorsement Questionnaire
Ideally, the candidate receiving AJP Action’s endorsement will align with our principles and our mission of ending Israel’s oppression of the Palestinian people through its settler-colonialism, apartheid, and military occupation; backing the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination; and ending all forms of US support for Israel until Palestinians achieve their long-denied rights to freedom, justice, and equality.
In the process of making our endorsements, we strive to evaluate where candidates currently stand, their willingness to engage on the issue of Palestine, and to be challenged to reevaluate what often passes in Washington, DC as uncritical, conventional wisdom, and the record of their opponents.
