Rep. Pascrell faces primary challenge over Gaza stance

Prospect Park Mayor Mohamed Khairullah, left, and Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. are competing for the Democratic nomination for the 9th District's House seat. (Photos: Khairullah campaign/Danielle Richards for New Jersey Monitor)

The war in Gaza is at the heart of the Democratic contest in the 9th Congressional District, where longtime Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. faces a challenge from a Muslim mayor who alleges the congressman has “turned his back” on his Muslim constituents.

Pascrell, who has represented New Jersey in Congress for more than a quarter century, has faced criticism from progressive members of his party who say he was slow to acknowledge the horrors facing people living in Gaza. His challenger, Mohamed Khairullah, the mayor of Prospect Park, said Pascrell has reneged on a promise to the Muslim community that he would always be there for them.

“The fact is, at a moment’s notice, he turned his back from them despite the fact that all they asked for is for him to make a statement calling for a cease-fire,” Khairullah said.

Pascrell, a staunch supporter of Israel, called for a “conditional cease-fire” on March 5 after months of pressure from critics who alleged he “remained silent” about the mounting death toll in Gaza.

“The scale of suffering in Gaza is ghastly and unacceptable, and my heart aches for those affected,” Pascrell said then. “Only with a ceasefire of hostilities can we provide the robust support and medical care necessary to address this crisis of historic proportion. As always, our long-term goal must be two states living side-by-side in peace and security.”

Khairullah said Pascrell’s call for a cease-fire comes with too many “caveats and qualifications.”

“His rhetoric suggests a reluctance to take a resolute stand, preferring to hedge his statements with phrases that amount to little more than ‘Peace, but…’ This equivocation is unacceptable in the face of the ongoing humanitarian crisis,” he said.

Pascrell did not respond to a request for comment on this story.

Voters and the war in Gaza

It’s not clear yet whether the war in Gaza is at the forefront of most voters’ minds. Opposition to President Biden’s support of Israel has been blamed for hundreds of thousands of Democrats in states like Michigan heading to the polls but pointedly not voting for Biden, and critics of the war garnered enough signatures to put “uncommitted” on New Jersey’s Democratic primary ballot in most places in the state .

Rep. Andy Kim’s support of Israel has earned him criticism from his two opponents in the U.S. Senate Democratic primary, Patricia Campos-Medina and Larry Hamm. Campos-Medina and Hamm have both called for a cease-fire and for the United States to stop supplying military aid to Israel. Kim voted for a bill to provide more military aid to that country and said he supports a cease-fire to allow more humanitarian aid to flow to the people of Gaza.

“That is something that absolutely needs to be addressed. Not enough humanitarian assistance is getting in, so we need to make sure we’re pressing harder to be able to get that across,” Kim said during a debate in South Orange last month.

Campos-Medina said her calls for a permanent and immediate cease-fire in Gaza stem from her experience as a survivor of war in El Salvador .

“I believe that we will never get to peace in the Middle East if we do not hold Israel accountable for the violations of international human rights laws that they are committing right now in Gaza,” she said at that debate.

In the 8th District, where incumbent Rep. Rob Menendez and Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla are competing for the Democratic nomination, Bhalla has tried to earn support from the district’s progressives by noting Menendez has been unwilling to call for a cease-fire.

In a debate between Menendez and Bhalla sponsored by Hudson County View last week, the candidates were asked this question: Should there be a cease-fire?

Menendez said the conflict must end but noted that Hamas continues to hold hostages and makes demands that “are not about protecting civilians” while walking away from negotiations.

“We need real engagement on this issue with Israel, with Hamas, that gets us out of this crisis that we’re calling for. A cease-fire alone will not get us there,” he said.

Bhalla said he supports a “brokered, negotiated cease-fire that includes the release of all hostages.” He also said those suffering in Gaza should have access to humanitarian aid.

“You’ll notice that my opponent does not say that he supports a cease-fire. He walked around that question, but I’ll tell you directly — I support a negotiated cease-fire with unfettered humanitarian access and the release of hostages, full stop,” Bhalla said.

9th District

Pascrell — who at 87 is one of the oldest members of Congress — is the favorite to win his primary.

He rarely faces primary opponents, and the last time he had one in 2020, he won more than 80% of the vote. He also has a major cash advantage: In most recent campaign filings, Pascrell reported having $1.4 million on hand and Khairullah had $112,868.

But the absence of county lines on this year’s Democratic primary ballots could give Khairullah a boost. Khairullah said instead of voters choosing the candidate that has been backed by party leadership, they will have to “look for the name that inspires them, and that’s our message.”

Khairullah said standing up against what he characterized as genocide in Gaza is important not only to the Arab and Muslim communities but also to “peace-loving people” who don’t want to see war.

The biggest concern he hears from voters is the economy, he said, while noting a $96 billion foreign aid package Biden signed in April that includes assistance for Ukraine and Israel. That could have been nearly $2 billion for each state to help citizens struggling with inflation, housing issues, and joblessness, he said.

Khairullah said his chief priority in Congress would be to ensure more taxpayer dollars make its way back to the 9th District, not spent on foreign conflicts.

“That’s basically the job of Congress — they carry the purse, and that purse is not being handled properly with the current Congress, and particularly, with Bill Pascrell, being one of the longest serving members,” he said.

Last year, Khairullah made national headlines when he was barred from entering an Eid-al-Fitr celebration he was invited to at the White House after the Secret Service said his name was on a terrorist watch list.

In an interview with Gothamist , Pascrell said he was the first person Khairullah called after that episode. The mayor denied that and accused Pascrell of using the incident to try to make himself look better. Khairullah said Pascrell hasn’t provided him with answers directly on how he was barred from the White House. And Pascrell hasn’t spoken out enough about the lack of due process that people of color and immigrants face daily, Khairullah added.

“That’s not something he faces, but we face every single day. We face it on the street. We face it in our workplaces, and now I had to deal with it on a national level at the house of the people,” said Khairullah. “So no, he does not advocate for us as strong as he says he does.”

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