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Congressman Adriano Espaillat delivered an animated attack on challenger Darializa Avila Chevalier in their third televised debate on NY1 last night, accusing her of celebrating "the death of innocent people in Israel," "irresponsibly tweeting," and insisting that she "doesn't know legislation."
Espaillat hammered Avila Chevalier, a pro-Palestine organizer and NYC-DSA member, for attending a rally in Times Square on October 8, 2023, one day after Hamas killed about 1,200 civilians in an attack on Israel.
"The day after the October 7 attack, she went to celebrate among radical people. Even Mayor Mamdani and Comptroller Lander did not attend this rally," he said. "The difference between me and her is that I believe in the two-state solution. She doesn't believe in the existence of Israel."
When it was Avila Chevalier's turn to speak, her voice shook slightly as she delivered a full-throated rebuttal directly into the camera.
"I was there at that rally on October 8, because I remembered what happened in 2014 and I knew that the reaction would be an outsized reaction that would cause the death of thousands upon thousands of people, and that is what I was there to protest," she said, referring to a 50-day retaliatory military siege Israel carried out in Gaza after three Israeli teenagers were found dead in 2014, which resulted in more than 1,800 Palestinian deaths. "That my opponent continues to dehumanize Palestinian life, and continues to dehumanize me for caring about human dignity is something that, frankly, I would not tolerate if not for the fact that this fight for me is a fight for my community."