El-Sayed distances himself from ad blaming high US grocery bills on Israel ‘killing Palestinians’

The Senate campaign of Michigan Democrat Abdul El-Sayed, a harsh critic of Israel, distanced itself from a pro-Palestinian group’s new ad that critics say invokes antisemitic tropes about US support for Israel.

But the campaign did not address the ad’s content, which echoes messaging the candidate has used.

The ad was made by Rebellion PAC, which is fronted by left-wing anti-Israel political commentator Cenk Uygur. It depicts a couple in a supermarket saying they cannot afford groceries because they have to set money aside “for killing Palestinians.”

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It also suggests that the US is paying for Israel’s universal health care system, something the US lacks. (US aid to Israel is for military purposes and has nothing to do with the Israeli healthcare system.)

“Why the fuck do we have to pay for all of this?” one person in the ad says.  The ad then asks, “Why does Mike Rogers care so much about what Israelis want and so little about what you want?”

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A voiceover then riffs on Republican ads from 2024 that attacked Democrats over LGBTQ issues. “Mike Rogers is for they/them,” the voiceover states over photos of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and far-right politicians Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich. “Abdul El-Sayed is for you.”

But in a statement to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, an El-Sayed campaign representative said the ad “is not affiliated in any way” with his campaign and that it did not speak for him.

“Abdul is focused on pushing back against Trump’s agenda that is raising prices for Michiganders,” campaign spokesperson Roxie Richner said in the statement. “No one speaks for Abdul but himself and his campaign.”

The campaign did not address how El-Sayed viewed the messaging behind the ad, and did not respond to a follow-up from JTA about the ad’s content.

El-Sayed is an outspoken critic of Israel, says it is not a US ally, and calls for an end to US military aid to the country. He has echoed messages similar to the ones in the ad. He has repeatedly blamed Israel for pushing the US into the Iran war, and has said that US citizens are paying for the war “in gas, we’re paying for it in our groceries, we’re paying for it in our souls.”

Tensions among Jewish voters in the state are high: Many have expressed discomfort with El-Sayed’s strong criticism of Israel. The candidate has condemned antisemitism and looked to make inroads with Jewish voters.

Rebellion’s ad repurposes an ad originally released in 2024 for Uygur’s abortive presidential campaign.

A spokesperson for the PAC told JTA that the group is spending $1,000 on the ad, and that it will run online. Uygur, on X, stated on Friday that the ad would run “in Michigan.”

“If you think this ad is antisemitic, you’ve lost your mind and you don’t know it,” the Rebellion PAC spokesperson, Kara Eastman, told JTA. “It’s saying we’re giving too much money to a foreign nation — and they’re misusing it. There’s nothing more normal than that. But when someone criticizes the government of Israel, and you hear ‘they hate all Jews,’ get clinical help.”

Shortly after Eastman’s response to JTA, Uygur himself added on X, “If you think this ad is antisemitic, you’re in a cult and don’t know it. You think Israel is owed all the money it wants from US and if Americans don’t hand it over — without complaint — they’re antisemites. That’s insane, but you don’t realize it because you’ve lost your mind.”

Michigan US Rep. Haley Stevens, a favorite of the pro-Israel community who endorsed El-Sayed after narrowly losing to him in the primary, called the ad “fearmongering” and “wrong.” She added that its makers were “blaming the high costs of our goods on the only Jewish homeland in the world.”

Melissa Byrne, a progressive activist and former staffer for Jewish progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders, wrote that Uygur “clearly wants Abdul El-Sayed to lose by doing this ad.”

A spokesperson for Michigan Jews for Democracy, an ad hoc group of Jews in the state who have pledged to vote for El-Sayed, called the ad “crap” in an interview with JTA.

“If they honestly think this is going to help, then they honestly have no idea what is going on in this state or this race,” Stacie Chaiken, the group’s representative, told JTA. “They’re just playing into the hands of people who are really trying to hurt him.”

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