King County Elections in Washington state told JNS that it removed the phrase “globalize the intifada” from a congressional candidate’s statement in its printed local voters’ pamphlet, but the language remained in the state’s official guide even after the county raised concerns with the Washington secretary of state’s office in May.

David Blomstrom, who is running to unseat Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), referenced the “Jewarchy” and ended his statement with, “From the river to the sea, let’s globalize the intifada.”

Halei Watkins, communications manager for King County Elections, told JNS that while the revised candidate statement appears in the King County official local voter’s pamphlet, his statement was also submitted to the Washington Secretary of State’s office for approval.

“At King County Elections, we did review Mr. Blomstrom’s statement and found that it violated King County’s rules for statements,” she said. “Because of this, our team asked Mr. Blomstrom to revise, and in the printed Local Voters’ Pamphlet provided by King County Elections, the reference to the opponent and the line referencing ‘intifada’ have been removed.”

Watkins told JNS that King County Elections “voiced our concern to the secretary of state’s office over the line referencing ‘intifada’ during our review process back in May, as well.”

“However, we do not have the authority to determine what the state provides in their voter guide,” she said. “As with all state and Congressional candidates, statements are linked to via the King County website but live and are managed on the state’s site.”

Helen Smith, a member of the secretary of state office’s communications team, told JNS that “candidate statements are printed as submitted.”

“Under state law, our office does not have the legal authority to alter candidate statements without a court order,” Smith said.

Robert Spitzer, international president of B’nai B’rith, told JNS that “as a Jewish leader and longtime resident of the state of Washington, it’s appalling that the state would permit that sort of incitement to violence against American Jews masquerading as political speech in a state publication.”

“Looking at the horrible increase in antisemitic acts in the United States, including violent attacks against Jews unrelated to Israel, this is unacceptable,” he said. “The intifadas in Israel have been violent. Calling for its globalization has resulted in violence against Jews around the world.”

“I call on the Washington secretary of state to issue a retraction of that dangerous incitement in the voter guide,” Spitzer said.

Regina Sassoon Friedland, director of the American Jewish Committee in Seattle, told JNS that “regardless of where it’s published, antisemitic language that celebrates globalizing the intifada should concern everyone.”

“We can defend free expression while also recognizing that words have consequences and can fuel real-world hostility, violence and worse,” she said. “Voters deserve to know what candidates believe, including when those beliefs include antisemitic rhetoric or calls that many understand as endorsing violence. Transparency is important in a democracy. At the same time, we should never become desensitized to language that dehumanizes Jews or appears to glorify and justify political violence.”

Gwen Kirkland, who is running as a Democrat in the same race, told JNS that Blomstrom used “horrendous language” and referred to him as “the Nazi Blumpkin.”

Kirkland, whose own candidate statement refers to “genocidal corporations,” argued that Blomstrom was taking advantage of what she described as an “opening left by the Democratic Party and its performative ‘opposition’ to this very real genocide and increasing antisemitism.”

She added that the solution to preventing people like Blomstrom from taking these positions is to “punish Israel and its leaders for the genocide being carried out.”

Kirkland also described Israel as an “ethnosupremacist project,” telling JNS that Jayapal is “closer on policy in relation to this Nazi than to me, an anti-Zionist and democratic socialist.”