Linda Sarsour and Marc Lamont Hill, two controversial far-left activists with histories of antisemitism and strident anti-Israel stances, headlined a virtual fundraiser on Wednesday night for Rep. Cori Bush’s (D-MO) reelection campaign convened by far-left groups including Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow.

Other organizers and speakers on the call, organized by a group calling itself “Jews for Cori,” included Beth Miller, political director of JVP Action; INN spokesperson Eva Borgwardt; Abbas Alawieh, Bush’s former congressional chief of staff and a spokesperson for the Uncommitted campaign; and anti-Zionist Jewish activist Naomi Klein, a longtime member of JVP.

Sarsour is a Palestinian-American activist who has been repeatedly accused of antisemitism by Jewish groups, including praising a convicted terrorist, comparing Zionism to white supremacy, seeking to exclude Zionists from progressive and feminist movements, invoking dual loyalty tropes, supporting a one-state solution and supporting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement targeting Israel.

Hill was fired as a CNN commentator after a speech in which he said that “justice requires… a free Palestine from the river to the sea,” language Jewish groups say amounts to a call for the elimination of Israel.

Bush’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment. She is facing St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell in the Aug. 6 Democratic primary.

Sarsour said on the call, a recording of which was obtained by Jewish Insider, that, “when you talk to people directly [in the district]… people understand that there is something sinister that is happening here in this district. And we all know that AIPAC and their affiliated PACs are putting big money.”

Hill said that Bush is “not kicking an imaginary two-state solution down the field.” 

He said that AIPAC and other groups opposing Bush are “nervous because of what it would mean for us to have a visionary political agenda that encompasses Black folk, brown folk, Christians, Muslims, Jews.”

Bush claimed on the call that “maybe even over 100,000 people” have been killed in Gaza since the beginning of the war between Israel and Hamas, a statistic that far exceeds the disputed data provided by the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry.

“I cannot sit by and allow a genocide, an extermination to happen,” Bush said. “I’m not going to back down. What they’re doing is radicalizing me even more.”

The fundraiser was organized by a group called End The Occupation PAC, according to an invitation to the event; the PAC is affiliated with IfNotNow, which the PAC has paid for staff services, according to Federal Election Commission filings. Speakers at the fundraiser said the event was also affiliated with JVP and a local group, Progressive Jews of St. Louis, which has worked with JVP, the local Democratic Socialists of America chapter and American Muslims for Palestine Missouri. 

Organizers said the fundraiser had raised more than $30,000.

“I need Cori Bush to stay in office,” JVP’s Miller said. “There is no other office that operates this way.”

Bush said she has been leaning heavily on JVP and INN in the months since Oct. 7.

Alawieh said that AIPAC and others opposing Bush are trying to “get our most powerful pro-working class people out of Congress.”

Jewish leaders in Bush’s district supporting her opponent told JI that she has sidelined mainstream Jewish organizations and leaders, elevating her relationships with JVP, INN and other far-left Jewish groups that support her criticisms of Israel.

Bush claimed on the call that she had assisted an unnamed Jewish critic in the district when the critic fell over at an event in the district earlier on Wednesday. Bush described the person as more individually responsible than anyone else for AIPAC’s spending in the district.

“I did what nurses do, take care of the person that was in need,” Bush said, adding that she “didn’t care that this is the person that brought [AIPAC] to my doorstep” and that the individual had thanked her profusely.

The invitation to the fundraiser also asked attendees to participate in a phone bank event hosted by Jews for Cori, the left-wing Working Families Party and the Sunrise Movement, the climate activism group that has ventured into anti-Israel advocacy.

WFP is also hosting another event this Sunday under the Jews for Cori banner. The sign-up page for that event includes a disclaimer, “You do not need to be Jewish or have experience canvassing to join us!”