But What Can You Do? tracks where 2026 candidates stand on U.S. weapons and funding for the government of Israel. How we check
Walid Hakim
Green · Governor, South Carolina
?Mixed
How this mark works
We track key votes on sending U.S. weapons and money to the government of Israel. A check means every tracked vote they cast came down against sending more, on the side of peace and de-escalation. A question mark means a mixed record: they sided with sending up to half of the time. An X means they voted to send more weapons and money in over half of their tracked votes, even as the way those weapons and dollars were being used became more and more obvious. At exactly half, money this election cycle from a lobbying group we track, or an endorsement from a group that backs sending weapons, makes it an X. Only votes actually cast are counted. Where a candidate has no recorded votes on these bills, the mark comes instead from a reviewed reading of their public record (money from the lobbying groups we track, endorsements, and their own words since January 26, 2024). There an X also covers fully backing the conduct of the war by the government of Israel without significant reservations, and a question mark also covers speaking about Israel without saying clearly where they stand on U.S. weapons and funding. A dash means No Position Found: we found nothing in their own words about Israel, Gaza or the war.
Two reviewers, reading the public record as a whole, agree: His campaign platform calls to end investment of SC taxpayer money in foreign nations or war-related bonds, for example "ending purchases of Israel bonds", without saying where he stands on U.S. weapons and funding for the government of Israel. Reviewed by hand on 2026-10-09. This candidate has no recorded tracked floor votes.
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Hakim is the Green Party's nominee for governor of South Carolina, a Marine Corps veteran, and the son of a Palestinian father. He has never held office, so none of the congressional votes this site tracks are his.
He has also taken a position against a state law. South Carolina has written the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism into statute, and he says on his campaign page that this was the wrong instrument: "instead of taking the time to write a real law to address the actual rising antisemitism problem we have here, we have taken the bold step of attempting to invalidate the 1st Amendment to shield The State of Israel from criticism." He says what he would do instead: "As governor of SC, I would ask that a real and comprehensive Hate Crimes Bill be written to protect every religion, race, culture or ethnicity under threat."
On what the United States should send, his platform is silent, and none of the reports that he has criticized American military aid could be opened and read; those addresses are written out on his research page. His earlier remarks about the conflict itself are dated and set out there too. If you want his position on what Washington sends, you are better placed to get it than we are: ask Hakim directly and send us the reply. It goes on this page in his own words.
In their words
“instead of taking the time to write a real law to address the actual rising antisemitism problem we have here, we have taken the bold step of attempting to invalidate the 1st Amendment to shield The State of Israel from criticism”
“As governor of SC, I would ask that a real and comprehensive Hate Crimes Bill be written to protect every religion, race, culture or ethnicity under threat.”
The notes behind this card: what we looked at, what we found, and where each item came from.
U.S. military aid and weapons to Israel
Nothing located that can be opened and read. His platform, read in full, carries no plank on U.S. weapons, U.S. military aid or foreign assistance.
[Unconfirmed, 2025-08-19 and 2025-09-28] A fresh search reported two social media posts of his criticizing American military funding for the government of Israel. The addresses it cites belong to a Michigan public health official's page and to a newspaper's page rather than to him, and both return an error to us. Nothing from either is used, and the misattribution is recorded here so it is not repeated.
U.S. aid to Palestinians
Nothing located.
Characterization of the conflict
[Reaction window, 2023-12-10] At a weekly ceasefire demonstration in Columbia, speaking as director of Middle Eastern affairs for the Carolina Peace Resource Center, he told the Post and Courier: "If Israel wants to go after Hamas, they can do that, but what we really need is to have the civilian Palestinian population stabilized," and "But it's pretty much an apartheid situation (in Israel). Israelis and Palestinians aren't going anywhere. It's just a matter of how many people have to suffer and die before we reconcile." Read and confirmed word for word; the parenthesis is the newspaper's. This is the source of the apartheid characterization this record had been carrying with nothing behind it. Not on the card summary: dated inside the reaction window.
[Unconfirmed, 2026] The fresh search reported further statements of his in 2026 describing the campaign in Gaza as genocide and Palestinians as an indigenous population subject to settler colonialism and forced displacement. Every address it cites for these is a third party's social page and none of them opens to us. Recorded here, used nowhere.
State action
[Position, read 2026-08-18] His platform, read in full and confirmed: "End investment of SC taxpayer money in foreign nations or war-related bonds (e.g., ending purchases of Israel bonds)" and "Redirect all state investment funds back into South Carolina infrastructure, housing, education, and savings." The page carries no date of its own, so it is dated to the day it was read; it is his live campaign platform and is treated as a current position.
Related rhetoric and lobbying
[Position, read 2026-08-18] On his campaign's own page, under a video about the state antisemitism statute, confirmed word for word: "That's how powerful the Israeli lobby has become. Interfering with local laws and trampling the Bill of Rights to protect a foreign nation." The page carries no date we could read, so none is given.
[Unconfirmed] The fresh search reported further criticism by him of pro-Israel political committees and of legislators' sponsored travel. Its addresses are third parties' pages and do not open. Not used.
No endorsement located. A check on 2026-07-18 found none.
Safety and antisemitism (context)
[Position, read 2026-08-18] From the same page: "In South Carolina, you're in violation of law when you compare Israel to Nazi Germany. By adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition of antisemitism, instead of taking the time to write a real law to address the actual rising antisemitism problem we have here, we have taken the bold step of attempting to invalidate the 1st Amendment to shield The State of Israel from criticism." And: "As governor of SC, I would ask that a real and comprehensive Hate Crimes Bill be written to protect every religion, race, culture or ethnicity under threat." He states in the same passage that antisemitism is a real and rising problem in the state.
Race and status context
Green Party nominee for governor, on the general-election ballot with the Democratic and Republican nominees, per Ballotpedia's race page and his profile; campaign site read 2026-08-18.
He holds no federal office, so none of the congressional votes this site tracks are his.
But What Can You Do? tracks where 2026 candidates stand on U.S. weapons and
funding for the government of Israel. Every claim on this page goes through at least two verification steps.
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