Darializa Avila Chevalier Has Been Criticized For Attending the 10/8 Rally for Palestine. She has Nothing To Apologize For

For anyone paying attention to the genocide in Palestine before 10/7, it was obvious what Israel’s response to any escalation by the resistance would be; Israel’s military was already infamous for shooting children in retaliation for merely throwing stones. The history of settler-colonialism reveals the devaluation of human life inherent to the logic of elimination at the core of such states. Retaliatory Israeli airstrikes were already tearing through Gaza before Darializa Avila Chevalier or anybody else stepped out their door on 10/8 to head to Times Square for a rally in solidarity with the Palestinian people. The moral failure is not the protests against these atrocities, but the strictly enforced silence around them which has pervaded American culture for decades.

In an interview with Peter Beinart published on July 12th, 2026, speaking about her attendance at the 10/8 rally in Times Square, DAC said, “protest for me isn’t about feelings. Protest for me is about wielding power, I’m an organizer”, she adds, “for me as an organizer I think about protests as a way to voice dissent and wield power over the things that we can control as Americans, over where our tax dollars are going”. DAC reflected on her attendance at the 10/8 rally in the context of her personal experience. She had returned from a trip to Palestine in 2014, shortly before Israel began a bombing campaign and ground invasion in Gaza, and this affected her significantly. Events since 10/8 have shown that the fears that she and others had about what Israel would do to Palestinian people were, as Peter Beinart posed in his initial question, “borne out beyond many of our worst imaginations". What is really being asked about DAC attending a rally in October 2023 from our perspective here in summer of 2026?

In 2026, Gaza remains in ruins, and Israel has announced its plan to begin forcing survivors into what they are calling a “humanitarian city” which others are, more accurately, calling modern-day concentration camps. It seems much more morally correct to be asking people why they did not do more, and sooner, to prevent this human catastrophe––rather than trying to condemn people who fought for Palestinian liberation even in the worst of times. There appears to be no good faith reason to continue asking DAC about her participation in the 10/8 rally unless one believes that, despite her words and actions before and since then, she might have a new answer which would reveal that her politics and her personal morality are hiding some secret, damning kernel of support for violence in a way that would be incompatible with the standards set for a citizen or politician in America at the present moment. What seems like a desire for moral accountability amidst the most immoral crime of the century ends up being a farce.

Ultimately, their problem with Darializa Avila Chevalier has nothing to do with support or opposition to violence––there is no end to the violence that is seen as a natural part of being an American and, especially, an American politician. From the UFC fights at the White House for Trump’s birthday celebration to our ongoing war with Iran. With violence continually escalating in American streets being perpetrated by ICE, the National Guard, and police–to the continued support for Israel’s genocide–it is clear that our political class revels in violence.

We have made no clean break with our history of violence which stretches back to before the founding of our settler-colonial state. In an interview with the New York Editorial Board leading up to the election, when pressed about her stance on Palestine, DAC said “I think about the fact that what I am advocating for is something that at its core is about human dignity and ending a cycle of violence. A cycle of violence that has continued in such a way where every few years, thousands upon thousands of people lose their lives”. This is not a violent stance.

In 2014, when she was 20 years old, DAC spent two months in the West Bank working with children. She said in the interview with Beinart that “it really shaped so much of how I understand state structures and the context even here in the US,” and that “sometimes you have to leave your context to fully understand your context.” In addition to giving her first-hand account of the apartheid conditions she witnessed in the West Bank, DAC recounted for Beinart her deep feeling of powerlessness when she learned that a nearby refugee camp had been raided and that some of those refugees–many of whom were parents of some of the children she was working with–had been taken by the Israeli military.

Describing why she views what is happening in Palestine as connected to American politics, DAC said “I think that in this case there is a war machine that is insatiable. An American war machine, the Israeli war machine that we fund with our tax dollars as Americans and instead, we could be funding our communities, we could be investing in human life.” This war machine–and its devastating consequences both abroad and at home–has driven the recent politicization and radicalization of young Americans to the left.

DAC participated as an alumna in organizing the student encampment protest at Columbia University. She was arrested in 2024 along with other protesters when Columbia called the police to clear the encampment. Speaking about it to Peter Beinart, DAC said that “what we have seen is the Trump administration [using] this community as its experimentation for its fascist policies. It did that with Columbia, it did that with student protestors, it did that with my friend Mahmoud [Khalil]. It’s time that we have representation that’s going to show up for the community here.” Student protesters at the encampments faced academic discipline, criminal charges, and condemnation from both major political parties. Now, one of their own is headed to Congress.

We value people who do the right thing, even when it is hard or unpopular. But we are bad at taking the measure of what is right in the moment. It becomes clear only in hindsight, when the right thing has become easy and popular. Palestine was not the only issue that DAC ran on, and it was not the only injustice that she has fought against in her organizing career. In college, she organized against sexual violence on campus and against mass incarceration in addition to organizing for divestment from Israeli apartheid. After college, she continued organizing against mass incarceration and for immigrant rights. She is currently running her congressional campaign on a platform of affordability, housing, healthcare, education, and economic security for all. She is running against ICE, corporate greed, and the imperial war machine. She is a fighter.

If people have questions about whether DAC will stand by her values and her commitments when power is stacked against her, they can look to her longstanding commitment to Palestinian liberation and her refusal to equivocate about or condemn her own attendance at the rally on 10/8. For us, her willingness to maintain a principled stance for what is right in the face of the accusations around 10/8 does not make her a crazy radical–it makes her someone the American people can trust to stand for what is right and what is pro-people, even if it might threaten her career.

The voters in the Democratic Party primary for New York’s 13th congressional district chose Darializa Avila Chevalier over the incumbent and chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Antonio Espalliat. As people become increasingly tired of an establishment politics that has continued to reveal its moral cowardice in response to a broad array of issues, a moral cowardice most clearly crystalized in its response to the ongoing genocide in Palestine, voters are turning to candidates like DAC–candidates who are running on anti-war positions with a history of organizing to back it up. Rather than positioning themselves as empty vessels, ready to take on whatever positions their constituents – or more often, their major campaign donors – ask them to take, candidates like DAC offer voters a set of policies and principles to identify with. Unlike the establishment candidates, they can point to their resume as regular people, actively participating in politics and fighting for justice, as evidence of their commitments. This isn’t just a job for Darializa Avila Chevalier, it is a duty.

Despite remaining consistent in her explanation and even after winning her primary, DAC continues to receive questions, some condemnations, and frequent insinuations regarding her attendance at the rally on 10/8. The media that has continued to press DAC about the rally has not applied the same level of scrutiny to her future congressional colleague Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who is also endorsed by NYC-DSA. On 10/9, AOC condemned the entire rally as anti-Semitic, accusing attendees of expressing “bigotry and callousness”. Ultimately, AOC did not call what was happening in Gaza a genocide until March of 2024, saying that “It looks like good and decent people who do nothing, or too little, too late.”

This did not mark a full turn for AOC. By July of 2024, as opposition to Joe Biden’s support for the genocide and concern about the state of his mental faculties was leading to ever louder calls for him to step aside in the 2024 presidential election, AOC stepped up to offer the president her full support. While framed by some as a shrewd political maneuver in pursuit of presidential support for progressive policy goals, for others this type of manuevering still amounted to offering real support to one of the co-authors of the Gaza genocide. President Biden provided unconditional support, both material and rhetorical, to the Israeli government throughout his presidency. The media that continues to press DAC about her attendance at the 10/8 rally has no similar questions for AOC–let alone the countless other politicians who have rallied behind Israel–about her decision to use her platform to support a president who was actively abetting a genocide.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a popular incumbent congresswoman in a safe district where she wins both primary and general elections by enormous margins. The safety of her seat gives her room to take political risks and unpopular positions. We should pay attention to the positions she chooses to take and when she chooses to take them. We should consider what this tells us about AOC’s moral and political commitments in the same way that we do for Darializa Avila Chevalier. As speculation continues to grow about a potential 2028 presidential run from AOC, she has begun to bring her position on Palestine more in line with the positions held by the American public in 2026. Speaking to an NYC-DSA electoral forum earlier this year, AOC committed to voting no on any spending on arms for Israel. On July 14th, she clarified that she supports an arms embargo and would vote against any bill requiring her to approve the transfer of weapons to Israel. Rather than using the safety of her seat to take strong positions on Palestine and the genocide earlier, when it would have been riskier for AOC but more impactful politically for the movement for Palestinian liberation, AOC has chosen to lag behind the left, progressives, and even the American public. Many have celebrated each time AOC’s position has moved in the right direction, and they are right to do so. We should be even more supportive of DAC for her consistency in her political and moral commitments.

While Zohran condemned the 10/8 rally and NYC-DSA equivocated in the moment in the face of backlash to a rally they had initially promoted, whenever DAC has been asked about the rally, she has used the opportunity to restate her opposition to war and injustice, reaffirm her commitment to Palestinian liberation and international law, and has articulated ways in which struggles at home and abroad are connected while articulating a positive political vision for fighting them. Having politicians in office who are able to pull these threads together is increasingly essential in a time where fascism in America is on the rise. From Cop City in Atlanta, to the crackdown on the student encampments for Palestine, to the federal occupation of D.C., to the NSPM-7-related arrests of activists, to the ever expanding ICE raids and the unrestrained violence that has come with them, the tone, technique, and technology of violence that the United States deploys around the world are already coming home. What is happening in Gaza will surely be brought back to us in the United States as well. If we have leaders like Darializa Avila Chevalier standing and representing our movement, we may have a better shot at fighting back.