The Story of Adam Gaza

Who is Adam Gaza?

Adam Gaza is a symbolic character that was invented by Hesham El-Meligy in the summer of 2014, during the gubernatorial election, where the then-NY Governor Cuomo was running for re-election.

Why did Hesham create that character?

That summer Israel attacked Gaza killing about 2200 individuals, mostly civilians (sadly as usual).  Instead of condemning such atrocities, Cuomo said he wanted to fly to Israel to show his support, which inspired Hesham to create Adam Gaza as a write-in candidate for governor. 

How did Adam Gaza fare out in the 2014 election?

Despite doing this for only a few weeks before the elections, the official results showed that Adam Gaza came in second place in the write-in votes, after Cuomo’s main Democratic opponent.

How was the campaign described to get people to write-in Adam Gaza?

This is what Hesham wrote in 2014 on the Adam Gaza website, in the section titled “The Moral Side”.  See how things are similar, only more brutal now:

As a result of this summer’s bombardment of Gaza, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that 2,104 Palestinians were killed, including 1,462 civilians, among them 495 children and 253 women. Those U.N. numbers would mean that 69 percent of the total killed were civilians.

On August 10, 2014, New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo, Senate Majority Co-Leaders Dean Skelos and Jeff Klein, and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, announced an upcoming “unity visit” with Israeli government which was carrying out the attacks on Gaza.

They did this despite the mounting evidence of the overwhelming number of civilians dying and the images of the wanton destruction of houses, hospitals, schools, and U.N. shelters.

Over 250 Jewish Holocaust survivors and descendants of survivors know better: they just signed a statement condemning Israel’s massacre on Gaza and calling for an end to the genocide of the Palestinian people.

This behavior of many of our elected officials and candidates is deplorable and must be confronted. They need to know that there is a price to pay for this utter disregard to human suffering and blatant support for criminal occupation, subjugation and torture of entire populations.

This move by those officials tells us that they are either uninformed or coerced to take such moves. In either case they are not for justice and thus unfit for their positions. The very least we can do is send them a message telling them that we will not accept this from them or anyone else. Vote Gaza this November 4th.

Ultimately, we want to send a message that WE THE PEOPLE will not be silent and will hold our elected officials accountable for their actions. While this effort is focused on the Governor race in NY, you can replicate this effort in the states where you have the option to “write-in” a candidate. Vote Adam Gaza for NYS Governor!

What happened in the 2023 elections?

In the 2023 elections, during Israel’s genocide of the people in Gaza, a campaign to write-in “Free Palestine” was promoted by many.  Hesham voted early and wrote-in “free Palestine”.

Then on the day before election day, a lawyer confirmed that slogans such as “Free Palestine” would not be tabulated and reported in the official results (in NY) because only names of individuals would be, even if symbolic names.

In that 24-hour period before the elections, Hesham decided to create a last minute Adam Gaza campaign.

This pivot was enormously successful, as Adam Gaza swept the write-in votes. See: https://www.star-revue.com/politics-with-howard-graubard-post-election-wrap-up-adam-gaza-sweeps-the-write-ins/

What is the plan for Adam Gaza in 2024 and beyond?

We hope there would be no need to use Adam Gaza after 2024.

For 2024, we encourage all people of good conscience to:

  1. Register to vote (and on the form, choose the dominant party in your state),
  2. Write-in Adam Gaza in every election where there is no candidate worth supporting.
    • To determine if a candidate is worth voting for this year, and for more on the strategy and its pros and cons, check out our FAQ page. If you still have more questions, please use the contact us page to send us a message.
  3. If you’re registered as independent, we urge you to update your voter registration by enrolling in the dominant party in your state. For example, Democrat in NY and Republican in Kentucky.
    • The reason is that in most states, to be eligible to vote in the primaries, you need to be enrolled in a party. The primary election is when the party’s enrolled voters determine who will be the party’s nominee in the general elections. So, it’s an important tool to use to help choose better candidates for the general election.

If you have any questions, comments, or want to share something with us, please use the contact us page.