Albert Lee is looking to unseat longtime Democratic incumbent Earl Blumenauer in Oregon’s 3rd congressional district and spoke with Mondoweiss about BDS, the occupation of Palestine, and whether his campaign is pushing Blumenauer to the left on these issues.

Last week a man in Salem, Oregon was charged with assault, intimidation and unlawful use of a weapon after he yelled at an employee working in a Middle Eastern restaurant, “go back to your country, terrorist” and then attacked him with a plastic pipe. The victim’s daughter, Layla Abdel-Jawad writes the man, Jason Kendall, suffers from a mental illness and should not be charged with a hate crime.