Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss, a candidate for Congress in the 9th District, Friday called on the U.S. to recognize a Palestinian state and block offensive arms sales to Israel.

Biss, whose mother grew up in Israel, the daughter of Holocaust survivors, wrote in a Substack post Friday morning titled “In Israel and Gaza, We Must Make a Different Choice,” that “nominal U.S. support for a Palestinian state does nothing to stop Netanyahu’s government from undermining” the atrocities perpetrated by the government.

“That is why now is the time for the U.S. to officially recognize a Palestinian state,” Biss wrote.

He also called on the U.S. to pause offensive weapons sales to Israel, just days ahead of the consideration of a House bill written by Rep. Delia Ramirez (IL-03) and co-sponsored by Rep. Jan Schakowsky of Evanston to block the transfer of offensive weapons.

A spokesperson for his campaign confirmed he’d support the bill.

Biss’ position on the issue is significant, given his family’s background and relationship to Israel, and previous commitment to defending Israel, dropping his running mate in his 2018 campaign for governor over his stance on boycotting, divesting and sanctioning the Israeli state.

At the time, Biss called it a “deeply personal issue,” taking heat from both sides on the decision.

His announcement also came the same morning several United Nations aid agencies determined that Gaza City and the surrounding communities are suffering from famine, nearly two years into the war that has left over 63,000 people in Gaza dead.

“Even many staunch supporters of the Netanyahu government profess anguish at the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, but go on to explain that this is all necessary in order to eradicate Hamas and bring security to Israel,” Biss wrote. “They are wrong.”

Biss’ mother, violinist Miriam Fried, moved to Israel from Romania at the age of two, settling with her family in the coastal town of Herzliya. In his post, he wrote about traveling to Israel as a child, “marveling at the stable, thriving lives they’d built out of the ashes of 1945.”

“I know that other families have stories that paint a dramatically different picture,” he wrote. “The creation of the State of Israel in 1948 was itself a violent trauma for Palestinians. And I have also spent time in the West Bank, decades ago, witnessing first-hand the cruelty of the occupation – and the way, already then, that it warped Israeli attitudes.”

While he described “starvation” and previously “famine” perpetrated by the Israeli government, he did not add his name to the growing list of House Democrats and political hopefuls in describing Israel’s actions as a genocide, something human rights organizations and genocide scholars have.

Over 15 Democrats are vying for the seat in Congress, with at least two already having been even more critical of Israel and its involvement in U.S. politics.

Bushra Amiwala, a Skokie school board member, has been deeply critical of Israel, saying the government “is using starvation as a weapon to create the largest modern manmade famine in Gaza.”

In a recent fundraising email, she called on her opponents in the Democratic primary to “Call the genocide a genocide or drop out.”

“This is the new litmus test for Democrats and it doesn’t take a focus group or opinion poll to find the right answer,” Amiwala wrote. “If you are so morally and ethically compromised on this issue, you are no better than a MAGA Republican and are undeserving of even calling yourself a Democrat.”

Kat Abughazaleh, a Palestinian-American herself, has also called on the U.S. to recognize a Palestinian state and has repeatedly called Israel’s actions a genocide.

“It’s collective punishment, it’s incitement to genocide, and the US needs to stop funding it,” Abughazaleh wrote in a post on social media last week.

Abughazaleh called for Palestinian statehood on July 24 in a post on social media.

On Friday, Abughazaleh told Evanston Now she’s “glad to see other candidates following my lead in calling for the recognition of a Palestinian state and an end to weapons transfers to any government that has broken countless international and US laws, including the State of Israel.”

Others, like candidate Bruce Leon, a former Chicago school board candidate and staunch supporter of Israel, said in a recent interview that while he doesn’t support the Netanyahu government and its “Gaza policy”, stopping weapon sales to Israel is “wrong.”

“You have a friend, a friend that’s really gone through a traumatic three years,” Leon said. “When you have a friend that’s going through trauma, that’s not the time to punish them … with something as radical as ‘We’re going to stop selling you arms.’”

State Sen. Laura Fine, another candidate for the seat and a strong supporter of Israel in the past, has been largely quiet on the issue so far, aside from expressing support for Israel’s strikes against Iran in June “to defend itself against an existential threat.”

Fine has accepted over $11,000 so far in donations through the Joint Action Committee for Political Affairs, a Democratic pro-Israel group with “unwavering support for Israel.”

Both Fine and Biss, along with another candidate, Phil Andrew, are listed on JAC’s website under 2026 primary candidates, despite JAC saying it “does not get involved in primary races” unless “an opponent truly clashes with our values, (including being anti-Israel, anti-semitic, or pro-life.”

Biss has accepted $5,000 from the pro-science organization 3.14 Action, which faced criticism in 2024 for quietly funneling money from AIPAC, a pro-Israel political action committee, to a pro-Israel candidates in an Oregon special election.

Biss previously faced criticism locally for his response to the city’s Equity and Empowerment Commission’s attempt to get a ceasefire resolution passed in Evanston.

At the time, Biss said, “I don’t think the Equity and Empowerment Commission should delve into international issues, even issues like this one about which all Evanstonians have very deep feelings.”