WASHINGTON — Michigan Senate Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed is calling for an end to the harassment of his former Democratic primary rival, U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens.

His Saturday, Sept. 19, statement followed an episode on Capitol Hill last week where an anti-Israel activist followed the four-term congresswoman to her car, calling her a war criminal and saying, “We will see you at the gallows.”

“Congresswoman Stevens and I might disagree on some important things — but we agree on so much more. If we believe in a more peaceful and just world, we have to express our disagreements without harassment or aggression,” El-Sayed said in a statement released by his campaign.

“Harassment like the kind she’s experienced is unkind and unproductive, and it puts her personal safety at risk. This behavior is not representative of our movement and should cease immediately.”

El-Sayed of Ann Arbor narrowly defeated Stevens of Birmingham in last month’s primary election after a bruising campaign, during which their contrasting positions on Israel were a focal point. El-Sayed is facing Republican Mike Rogers in the November election, and Michigan’s contest could determine control of the U.S. Senate.

A video posted on social media on Thursday showed Stevens walking through a House office building in Washington while being badgered by an unidentified activist about her support for Israel. He accused her of endorsing genocide and ethnic cleansing and then said she’d be sent to the Hague International Criminal Court: “We will see you at the gallows.”

“There is literally no genocide,” Stevens responded as she walks to a waiting car. “Sir, I don’t know who you are. … You are a hate movement.”

Over the weekend, Liano Sharon, a Lansing-based Democratic activist, former member of the Democratic National Committee and a supporter of El-Sayed’s, weighed in on the “gallows” remark.

Sharon, who is an at-large member of the Michigan Democratic State Central Committee, in an emailed statement to Jake Altman, a contributor for the online Jewish magazine Tablet, on Friday said, “See you at the gallows” “carries appropriate sentiment” for Stevens, whom he called a neo-Nazi.

Sharon said Stevens should be investigated and perhaps tried but added that he would advocate for her commutation if Stevens were convicted of war crimes because he’s opposed to the death penalty.

“The specific statement is both premature (we need an investigation and fair trial first) and overly bombastic (I don’t support the death penalty even for neo-Nazis),” Sharon wrote of “See you at the gallows.”

“Reichstag legislators were sentenced to the gallows at Nuremberg for similar legislative support for Nazi atrocities as Stevens gave to Zionist atrocities. Why should our legislators be treated differently if the investigation concludes they committed neo-Nazi atrocities?”

More: Jewish voters in Michigan signal support for El-Sayed for Senate

In a brief email to The Detroit News on Saturday, Sharon said the posts about his statement were “designed to be inflammatory propaganda, not accurate reporting.”

In a subsequent Substack column, Sharon said the social media post by Altman about him took fragments of his statement and used them out of context to “manufacture clicks and controversy.”

“He’s trying to twist my advocacy for equality under the law into a bad thing, wrap me around the good doctor, and get other propagandists to run around asking people to disavow me,” Sharon wrote.

‘Gallows’ rhetoric widely condemned

Several prominent Michigan Democrats on Saturday condemned the “gallows” rhetoric, including U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Holly, gubernatorial nominee Jocelyn Benson, U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell and Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist II, the nominee for secretary of state.

“Our politics should never include threats of violence against the people who serve us — no matter who they’re aimed at,” Benson said on social media. “Invoking ‘the gallows’ for people you disagree with isn’t political speech, it’s dangerous. I condemn it fully.”

Slotkin appeared to call out Sharon’s statement specifically by condemning any threat of political violence, “including from an MDP State Central Committee Member.”

“It feels like I have to make that clear every week — from the right and from the left,” Slotkin said on X.com. “Debate in our politics is good. Threats of violence and invoking ‘the gallows’ for elected leaders you disagree with is unacceptable.”

Dingell of Ann Arbor said that threats of violence and language invoking “the gallows” have “no place in political discourse.”

“Suggesting that public officials should face execution crosses a dangerous line,” Dingell wrote on X.

Stevens’ fiancé, long-time party donor Jason Turkish of Huntington Woods, said she deserves better.

“When a Democratic Party officer calls for the execution of a sitting Member of Congress, it’s hard to stay silent — and when she’s the woman you love and are about to marry, it isn’t politics,” Turkish said in a statement.

“I’m tired of pretending this bile has no root. It does, and we need to call it out: when certain figures in our party who have gained recent attention constantly invoke (the American Israel Public Affairs Committee) and ‘the Jews’ as the hidden hand behind everything, they create a permission structure for violence.”

Rogers said El-Sayed had “invited” such dangerous rhetoric from his supporters by campaigning with the left-wing streamer Hasan Piker.

“Hate and violence have no place in our politics. Period,” Rogers posted on Saturday. “Abdul should apologize to Congresswoman Stevens immediately, condemn this unacceptable rhetoric coming from his supporter, and disavow Hasan Piker.”