In the final weeks of his uphill primary battle against George Latimer, Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D., N.Y.) spent tens of thousands of dollars to bring in a trove of anti-Israel staffers who have defended Hamas and blamed Israel for the terror group's Oct. 7 attack, campaign finance disclosures show.
Since May, Bowman has sent nearly $2,300 in staff payments to "End the Occupation," a left-wing group that recently registered as a "multicandidate committee" with the Federal Election Commission, a designation that allowed it to funnel additional money to Bowman and other members of the left-wing "Squad," including Reps. Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.) and Cori Bush (D., Mo.).
The group's assistant treasurer, Sara Migler, serves as a community organizer for IfNotNow, an anti-Israel group that works to "end U.S. support for Israel's apartheid system" and blamed Oct. 7 on the Jewish state. End the Occupation's treasurer, Howie Stanger, was IfNotNow's board president from 2019 to 2023. In 2021, he likened Israeli Jews to Nazis.
Since April, meanwhile, Bowman has sent more than $100,000 in canvassing expenses to left-wing political consultant Robert Akleh. A self-described "native New Yorker with over 12 years of political campaign experience," Akleh formed his own consulting firm in 2015, roughly one year after he was fired from his job managing a campaign for state legislature over anti-Israel posts. In 2011, Akleh accused U.S. politicians of dual loyalty, writing, "We live in the United States of Israel." One year later, Akleh complained that a "celebrate Israel night" ruined his plans to see a baseball game. "Just my luck. I go to Citi Field to watch the Mets game and it turns out to be celebrate Israel night smh!!!!" he wrote.
In addition to End the Occupation and Akleh, Bowman sent nearly $2,000 in late May to JVP Action, the political arm of Jewish Voice for Peace, for "staff time organizing member volunteers and donors," disclosures show. Just weeks prior, Congress launched a probe into JVP and other anti-Israel groups over their financial support for "pro-Hamas, antisemitic, anti-Israel, and anti-American protests with illegal encampments on American college campuses," the Washington Free Beacon reported.
Bowman's staffing spree comes as the left-wing lawmaker limps to the finish line in his primary race—the most expensive in House history—against Latimer, the Westchester County executive. A June poll from New York City television station PIX11 showed Bowman trailing Latimer by 17 points.
Bowman nonetheless expressed confidence during a Wednesday evening appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert that he will "win this election." Bowman went on to tout the Hip Hop Power and Justice Task Force he launched in the House earlier this year. He also rapped lyrics from a Nas song after Colbert asked if Bowman "had bars."
"I myself do not have bars, but I copy other people’s bars, so I can give you someone else’s bars and it sounds pretty good," Bowman responded. He did not respond to a request for comment.
IfNotNow has long expressed sympathy for Hamas. In 2020, the group said those who hold the terror group "directly and fully responsible for the crisis in Gaza" are advancing a "myth." Instead, the group argued, "Israel has worked to fragment the Palestinian territory, economy, and social ties undermining Palestinian civil society from its very foundations."
A month after Oct. 7, meanwhile, IfNotNow blamed the attack on Israel's "occupation and apartheid."
"October 7 made clear that occupation & apartheid don’t keep anyone safe," the group wrote. "We will keep working towards a future where Israelis & Palestinians can live in true equality, justice & peace. Where no one needs to fear for their life. The first step towards that future is ceasefire." Shortly thereafter, in December, IfNotNow conflated Israeli civilians kidnapped by Hamas with terrorists captured by the Jewish state.
"During this week of pause, we've learned more about the horrors of this war. The indiscriminate bombing of civilians, and the scale of the destruction in Gaza. The rape of Israeli women on October 7th. The suffering of those held by both Hamas and the IDF," the group wrote.
IfNotNow is part of a coalition of groups that joined together in April and May to raise $100,000 to "#ProtectTheSquad." One of the groups in that coalition, RootsAction, issued a statement one day after Oct. 7, saying "cruel Israeli occupation and expansionism" prompted the terror attack.
"The root of today's violence is the oppression and abuses suffered daily by Palestinian people as a whole under decades of cruel Israeli occupation and expansionism. Leading human rights groups … have concluded that Israel's occupation policies amount to a form of apartheid," the group wrote. "Until Israel's military occupation is ended, these cycles of terror and war and trauma will repeat."