NY lawmaker intensifies campaign targeting Israeli settlements
Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani on Dec. 15, 2022. Photo by NY1/Screenshot
By Jacob Kornbluh June 27, 2023
A New York lawmaker is embarking on a campaign to gain support for a bill that would penalize New York-based nonprofits that support activities in Israeli settlements.
Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani, a Democratic Socialist from Queens, has declared Wednesday a “day of action” on the bill, which he introduced last month. He is taking the campaign to Muslim houses of worship across New York City on Eid al-Adha, the Feast of Sacrifice and one of the two largest holidays celebrated in Islam.
In an email sent to supporters last week, Mamdani asked for volunteers “to talk to people at the prayer gatherings about the campaign.”
Titled the “Not on our dime!: Ending New York funding of Israeli settler violence act,” a majority of Democrats have pushed back on the bill, including leaders of both state legislatures, who said it targets, in part, Jewish organizations and nonprofits providing assistance to families of terror victims. Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie said the measure is “a non-starter and it is not something we are considering.”
Mamdani maintains that the bill would only impact tax-exempt donations of more than $50 million from organizations supporting activities “such as aiding and abetting the demolition and arson of Palestinian schools, homes and agricultural land.”
In the email, he added that “charities should not fund war crimes — it’s that simple. The stated U.S. foreign policy is that settlements are illegal — this bill seeks to bring New York state policy in line with that goal.”
Mamdani acknowledged that his bill faces an uphill battle in Albany. Only three lawmakers, all affiliated with a local chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, signed on as co-sponsors. State Sen. Jabari Brisport introduced a Senate version of the bill, co-sponsored by Sen. Kristen Gonzalez. “The opposition to this legislation has been loud, but we can meet it by organizing New Yorkers across the state to push their representatives to do the right thing,” the email read.
The canvassing campaign — sponsored by Adalah Justice Project, a U.S.-based Palestinian advocacy group — was looking for volunteers “with fluency in Arabic, Bengali, Pashto or Urdu” and those who signed up were invited to a mandatory training. They were informed that logistics would be shared on Signal, an encrypted messaging service, and be given “beautiful palm cards printed and ready for us to hand out and encourage people to take action through the site and join the campaign in other ways throughout the summer.”
Mamdani didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Sumaya Awad, a spokesperson for Adalah, said that Wednesday’s action is aimed to reach thousands of Muslim New Yorkers who congregate across the city during the holiday, “many of them are constituents who have made it clear time and again” that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is “a major area of concern.” In the statement, she described Israel as an “apartheid regime.”
Mamdani, an Uganda-born Muslim, was first elected in 2020 and is part of a growing group of New York state lawmakers affiliated with the Democratic Socialists. He supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel, advocates for Palestinian rights, and recently spoke out against settler violence in Palestinian villages in the occupied West Bank.
In an interview with Politico last week, Mamdani compared House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who is Black, to George Wallace, the former segregationist governor of Alabama and four-time candidate for president, and charged that the Democratic leader was ignoring the human rights of Palestinians.
“One of the quotes that comes to mind clearly to me is when Hakeem Jeffries got onto a stage at a pro-Israel rally and paraphrased the words of George Wallace and said, ‘Israel today, Israel tomorrow, Israel forever,’” Mamdani said, referencing Wallace’s quote: “Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.”
This post was updated to include Adalah’s statement.
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