The Palestinian cause "played a major role" in the Republican Party's loss of its majority in the US Congress to the Democratic Party, Mustafa Barghouti, secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative, said Wednesday.
Preliminary results showed Democrats winning majorities in both chambers of Congress-the House of Representatives and the Senate-in a major political setback for President Donald Trump and his Republican Party, according to US media.
In a statement, Barghouti said the results of Tuesday's US midterm elections reflected the consequences of the alliance between Trump, the Republican Party and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
He added that they also reflected the repercussions of "providing cover for the continuation of Israel's genocidal war on the Gaza Strip and its attacks in the occupied West Bank."
Israel has waged a genocidal war in Gaza since Oct. 8, 2023, killing more than 74,000 Palestinians and injuring nearly 176,000 others, most of them women and children, while destroying 90% of the territory's infrastructure.
Meanwhile, Israeli army attacks and occupier violence against Palestinians have intensified in the occupied West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem.
Netanyahu has been wanted by the International Criminal Court since 2024 over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity against Palestinians in Gaza.
Barghouti said the economic repercussions of the war on Iran, along with the resulting damage to countries in the region and the global economy, "constituted another major factor in the election results."
On Feb. 28, the US and Israel launched an offensive against Iran, killing thousands, according to Tehran, which responded by attacking Israel and US military facilities in Arab countries.
Washington and Tehran signed a memorandum of understanding on June 18 and began negotiations, but the talks collapsed over disagreements concerning guarantees for freedom of navigation and security in the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway for energy and goods supplies.
Barghouti said the Palestinian cause "was strongly present in elections across various US regions," amid unprecedented public support for "the justice of the Palestinian cause," which he said had become a "shared humanitarian issue" in the eyes of broad segments of the American public.
Democratic candidates have voiced opposition to Washington's support for Tel Aviv amid the ongoing war in Gaza and called for an end to arms supplies to Israel.
