Three weeks ahead of the November 3 U.S. midterm elections — where every sitting member of the House of Representatives and a third of the Senate face re-election, and results are widely seen as a referendum on the sitting president’s policy agenda — a coalition of U.S. activists is set to embark on an unprecedented 10-day, 5,000-kilometer cross-country journey this Saturday. Dubbed the “Freedom Convoy USA”, the initiative aims to push American voters to confront and question the long-standing bipartisan U.S. relationship with Israel, at a moment when shifting public opinion on the issue is reshaping the national political landscape.
Organized by a diverse group of participants spanning multiple religious traditions, including former federal government employees and military veterans, the convoy plans to center its outreach work in the American South’s Bible Belt — a region where conservative Evangelical Christianity has long deeply intertwined support for Israel with core religious doctrine. Hazami Barmada, a veteran activist who gained national attention for her 2024 Gaza war protest encampment outside former Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s residence, framed the mission in an Instagram statement ahead of the launch. Even in one of Washington D.C.’s wealthiest, most highly educated neighborhoods, Barmada noted, widespread lack of awareness about the reality of Israel’s actions and governing ideology persists.
Crucially, Barmada emphasized that the convoy’s goal is not just to raise awareness of Palestinian suffering. Instead, she argued, the core priority is to educate Americans on the nature of Zionism itself, framing it as a racist, settler-colonial project that creates an ethnonationalist state — and asserting that the ideology is inherently antisemitic. Forty-two participants will take part in the journey, which kicks off at noon local time Saturday at a gathering outside the Israeli consulate in Los Angeles, before stopping to host community discussions across 17 states including Arizona, Texas, Oklahoma, Illinois, and Pennsylvania.
Organizers do not claim they will shift long-held public attitudes overnight, acknowledging that decades of targeted pro-Israel messaging have shaped mainstream perspectives in communities across the country. Instead, Barmada explained, the convoy’s core aim is to plant seeds of doubt: to encourage Americans to question the narratives they have been taught about Israel for generations. The trip comes on the heels of mounting international condemnation of Israel’s actions in the occupied Palestinian territories. For decades, leading global human rights organizations have documented that Israel has committed systematic grave human rights violations against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and blockaded Gaza Strip with near-universal impunity. Last year, the United Nations’ top independent investigative body for the region concluded that Israel is carrying out acts of genocide in Gaza.
Successive rounds of polling from major U.S. research firms in 2025 confirm a dramatic, long-term shift in American public opinion three years after the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks and the outbreak of Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Gaza. Just last week, polling from the Chicago Council on Global Affairs made history: for the first time since tracking began, a 56 percent majority of Americans now support cutting or ending U.S. military aid to Israel. Israel’s overall favorability rating hit a new low of 44 on the survey’s 0 to 100 thermometer scale, matching findings released earlier this year by leading U.S. pollsters Gallup and Pew Research Center.
Shibley Telhami, a University of Maryland professor who has tracked American attitudes toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since 1989, described the shift as a lasting, paradigmatic change rather than a temporary fluctuation. Speaking at an event hosted by the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research this week, Telhami noted that public opinion now increasingly frames Israel as a villain, even a genocidal one, a shift that runs far deeper than many political analysts acknowledge.
The Freedom Convoy USA is scheduled to arrive at the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C. on October 26, where organizers plan to deliver a “We The People” petition to congressional offices. With lawmakers currently back in their home districts campaigning ahead of the midterms, the initiative is tying its criticism of U.S. Israel policy to domestic economic frustrations that top voter priorities. In its official press release, the convoy pointed out that millions of American families continue to struggle with skyrocketing costs for healthcare, childcare, and housing. The group is calling for policymakers to reorient federal spending priorities to put the needs of American communities first, and end taxpayer funding that contributes to the suffering of Palestinians.