Champaign, IL. Democratic Challenger Dylan Blaha (IL-13) issued the following statement today.

On September 16, 2025, a UN Commission acknowledged Israel’s genocide in Gaza. The Commission urged Israel and all States to fulfil their legal obligations under international law to end the genocide and punish those responsible for it.

I believe in an end to apartheid and genocide around the world and I condemn the United States’ role in Israel’s genocide in Gaza. I also support a one-state solution within the borders of the former Mandatory Palestine with democracy, freedom, and equal rights for all people, along with an extensive reparations process.

As a member of US Congress, I will push for the United States to decrease our defense budget and become a leader in peace, diplomacy, and humanitarian aid around the world.

The Zionist claim to Palestinian land began over one hundred years ago through voices like Theodor Herzl, the father of modern political Zionism.

The Balfour Declaration in November 1917 announced the British Empire’s support for the “establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.” The Mandate for Palestine granted by the League of Nations to Britain in 1922 established Mandatory Palestine in the aftermath of the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. Neither document referenced Palestinians or their national rights.

In 1947, the US replaced Britain as the main imperial power, as it ensured the passage of the UN partition resolution, which approved the establishment of a Jewish state on 56% of Palestinian land. This violated the Palestinians’ right to self-determination, as guaranteed by the UN Charter.

The UN resolution led to a civil war in Mandatory Palestine, the establishment of the State of Israel, and the Nakba. During the Nakba, an ethnic cleansing campaign, over 700,000 Palestinians experienced violent displacement and dispossession of their land, property, and belongings.

Palestinians continue to suffer, while most American politicians vote to send offensive and defensive weapons to Israel and enable an ongoing genocide in Gaza.

I support an immediate and permanent ceasefire that sets the stage for peace and reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians. We must also immediately sanction Israel for their violations of international law.

Although several nations offered conditional recognition of the State of Palestine, this is not a real solution - it’s a distraction from the genocide. It is a political maneuver that legitimizes Zionism and the theft of Palestine. It erases the right of return and rewards settler colonialism, while Palestinians continue to bleed and resist.

True recognition begins with acknowledging the genocide, ending impunity, and dismantling the colonial structures that dispossessed Palestinians for generations.

I support a one-state solution within the borders of the former Mandatory Palestine with equal rights for all people. I recommend this democratic state conducts a comprehensive study of what was taken and what was lost and undergoes an extensive reparations process, along with a truth and reconciliation process to move forward peacefully.

Simultaneously, I condemn all hate speech, including anti-Palestinian, antisemitic, anti-Muslim, and anti-Arab rhetoric. It's incredibly dangerous to conflate anti-Zionism with antisemitism. It's equally dangerous to call anyone who disapproves of Israel's ongoing genocide in Gaza an antisemite. Our elected officials must not equate Jewish people with Israel's far-right government.