(JEWISH GROUP) 'Not the Jewish party': Candidate to lead Michigan Dems under fire for antisemitic comments [View all]

A candidate to head Michigan’s Democratic Party is facing backlash for suggesting his party is “not the Jewish party.” Al Williams, a Democratic activist and organizer from Detroit also said that voices beyond American Jews should be heard in discussions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The war in Gaza was a point of contention during last year’s presidential primary in the key battleground state, with more than 100,000 voting in protest of the Biden-Harris administration’s handling of the conflict.

“This is not the Jewish party. This is the Democratic Party,” Williams said last week in remarks at a virtual candidate forum co-hosted by the Arab American Democratic Caucus. “There are more voices than just Zionists in this party. There are more voices than just Jewish Americans within this party.” Williams was responding to a question about his stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and what policy changes he believes the party should consider following Vice President Kamala Harris’ defeat in the presidential election. The remarks were first reported by the Detroit News on Tuesday.

Williams is one of three Democrats vying for the chairperson position at the party’s state convention on Feb. 22 in Detroit, and the only Black candidate in the race.

Rep. Haley Stevens, a moderate Democrat who is affiliated with the more traditional pro-Israel camp of the party, called the comments “deeply offensive” and “disqualifying.” Stevens said it played into antisemitic tropes that Jews are powerful and failed to “recognize the broad spectrum of Jewish belief and political engagement.”

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Williams doubled down on the antisemitic trope about Jews controlling the Democratic establishment when contacted by a Detroit News reporter on Tuesday. “They cannot control the entire party,” Williams said of Jewish Americans. “They are one of many voices.”

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