In Historic Primary Win, Palestinian-American Woman Secures Shot at Albany Seat
Aber Kawas, a Palestinian-American community organizer, won the Democratic primary for New York State Senate District 12 in Queens on Tuesday and will become the first Palestinian Muslim woman elected to the New York State Legislature if she wins the general election.
She defeated Assembly member Steven Raga with roughly 60% of the vote in an open seat.
Kawas secured the Democratic nomination after receiving the endorsement of New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, whose campaign similarly centered on democratic socialist policies.
Born and raised in New York to Palestinian parents, Kawas campaigned on a platform focused on affordable housing, universal healthcare, immigration reform, public transit, climate action and opposition to US support for the Israeli regime’s genocidal war in Gaza.
According to her campaign website, she has spent more than 15 years organizing for working-class New Yorkers, including the Fight for $15 movement, campaigns against police surveillance, and immigration reform.
She also said she helped launch the “Not On Our Dime” campaign alongside Mamdani to stop New York-based non-profit organizations from funding "Israel's human rights violations against Palestinians."
Kawas being the daughter of Palestinian refugees said her political activism was shaped by her family's experience after her father was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and deported while she was young.
"When I was young, my father was detained by ICE and deported from the U.S. by the same cruel immigration system that is harming the people of Queens today," she states on her campaign website.
"These experiences shaped how I see the world, and made me the organizer I am today, determined to build power for poor and working people,” she said.
Explaining her decision to run for office, Kawas says she wants to challenge the political status quo, arguing that the federal government is "continuing to fund Israel's genocide in Gaza with our tax dollars" while cutting social programs and increasing immigration enforcement.
Her platform calls for passing the New York Health Act, expanding affordable housing, making MTA buses faster and free, strengthening tenant protections, investing in renewable energy, ending New York's cooperation with ICE, and protecting immigrant rights.
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On foreign policy-related state legislation, Kawas supports the “Not On Our Dime bill” to prevent New York taxpayer money from funding Israeli settler violence, banning the sale of Palestinian land in violation of international law, ending the transport of weapons used in what she describes as illegal wars through publicly funded infrastructure, protecting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, and advocating against U.S. involvement in wars and regime-change efforts abroad.
District 12 covers diverse neighborhoods in Queens, including parts of Astoria, Sunnyside, Woodside, Long Island City, Ridgewood, Maspeth, Elmhurst, Glendale and Jackson Heights, home to large immigrant and working-class communities. Kawas has described her campaign as being "powered by working people, not corporations or billionaires."
Source: maktoobmedia.com
