Opinion: End New York’s complicity with Israel’s war crimes

On May 31, many of my colleagues in elected office proudly marched in the annual “Israel Day on Fifth” parade in Manhattan. They marched in the same parade as Israel’s right-wing finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, who calls for Palestinian towns to be “wiped out” and for Gaza to be “entirely destroyed.” Smotrich has described himself as a “fascist homophobe,” and his Religious Zionist Party recently pushed through a new policy that applies the death penalty exclusively to Palestinians. 

After public backlash, some elected officials who attended the parade, including Gov. Kathy Hochul, issued statements distancing themselves from Smotrich, while maintaining their support for a state that continues to displace and massacre Palestinians. And the issue is not going away. Israel’s far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir – who just last month declared that “all of Lebanon must burn,” and “for every tear of an Israeli mother, a thousand Lebanese mothers must weep” – was set to visit the United Nations on July 7. (He cancelled his trip after human rights organizations requested U.S. officials arrest and prosecute him for war crimes.)

But the problem is not limited to a single parade, or individual Israeli ministers visiting New York City. The problem is New York’s complicity with Israel’s war crimes and violations of international law. 

While New York lawmakers march arm-in-arm with war criminals amidst the ongoing genocide in Gaza, real estate companies have been using New York as a market to sell stolen Palestinian land, and New York-based “charities” are funding Israeli settler organizations working to evict and ethnically cleanse Palestinians from their homes. The complicity of New York state in the displacement and suffering of Palestinians has been the status quo for decades, and few elected officials have dared question it. 

That began to change in 2023, when then-Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani and state Sen. Jabari Brisport introduced the “Not On Our Dime!” Act in the state Legislature. The legislation clarifies that funding Israeli settlement activity is illegal and prohibits nonprofit organizations in New York from abusing their NGO status to facilitate Israeli war crimes. Enacting Not On Our Dime! would end the current practice of New Yorkers effectively subsidizing organizations which directly support the displacement of Palestinians. Organizations that continue to fund settlements illegally would be fined by the attorney general and lose their nonprofit status.

When Not On Our Dime! was originally introduced, it was considered dead on arrival, causing ire and backlash from Albany lawmakers. But as the genocide in Gaza intensified and public opinion drastically shifted away from unconditional support for Israel, the political conditions have transformed. Mamdani is now the mayor of New York City and declined to participate in this year’s Israel Day parade, citing his support for Palestinian human rights. And earlier this year, I reintroduced the Not On Our Dime! Act in the Assembly with a slew of new co-sponsors. 

Recent election results further reflect the public’s growing solidarity with Palestine and opposition to using our tax dollars to fund genocide, war and displacement abroad. Supporters of Palestine are winning congressional primaries across the country, from Pennsylvania to Colorado to New Jersey, proving Democratic voters want representatives who reject AIPAC funding and U.S. military funding to Israel.

In New York alone, 26 supporters of Not On Our Dime! won their Democratic primaries on June 23rd, ousting six pro-Israel incumbents from Congress and both chambers of the state Legislature. Our legislation is poised to gain as many as a dozen new cosponsors next year – including Aber Kawas, the first Palestinian-American elected in New York and one of the original authors of the bill. The tide is turning at an unprecedented level, and politicians who fail to listen to voters do so at their peril. 

Now more than ever, New York lawmakers have a legal and moral obligation to pass Not On Our Dime! in our next legislative session to ensure that hard working New Yorkers’ tax dollars don’t fund war crimes abroad, that New York’s non-profits abide by international law and that our state respects and upholds the human rights of Palestinians.