New York State Assembly brings hopes to Palestinians

ALBANY, New York – A landmark bill introduced in New York State has given hope to Palestinians who are being forced off their land by Jewish settlers.

The legislation, introduced in the New York State Assembly last Wednesday by Zohran Mamdani, prohibits the use of tax-deductible donations to evict Palestinians from their land.

The legislation is supported by Jewish Voice for Peace, the Center for Constitutional Rights, the Adalah Justice Project, the Palestinian Youth Movement, the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, the NYC Democratic Socialists of America, and many others.

According to experts, this is the first New York State bill to actively support Palestinian freedom and also the first of its kind in the U.S.

 The bill also gives the New York Attorney General the power to sue groups that fund settlements and gives Palestinians who have been harmed by settler organizations the ability to seek damages in U.S. courts.

 Anti-Palestinian lawmakers who oppose the law call it anti-Semitic.

But activists say the very fact that Mamdani was able to introduce this bill is evidence of the growing number of U.S. Jews opposing Israeli apartheid.

Voices calling for an end to subsidizing Israeli apartheid are growing louder in the U.S.

The proposed legislation will ensure that U.S. money does not go into the pockets of settlers who want to make the Palestinians and Palestine disappear.

While it is well known that the U.S. government provides billions in support to the Israeli military, there was little knowledge that individual states also subsidize apartheid.

The front organizations, disguised as “charities,” enjoyed tax breaks while directly funding Israeli settler violence.

 In New York alone, these groups transfer at least $60 million each year to settler organizations that maintain the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.

This bill, once signed into law, will effectively stop this aid to settlers.