Political Arena

Council condemns BDS

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The City Council took a pointed step to condemn the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions campaign in a resolution sponsored by Councilman Andrew Cohen.

Mr. Cohen said he wanted to take action to publicly condemn the movement. The resolution does not impose any sanctions on supporters of the BDS movement, but outlines the city’s stance on the issue. 

“I think it bodes well that people should know and my constituents should know that progressive democrats can stand up for Israel,” he said in a phone interview on Monday. “It is not a punitive resolution.”

The resolution passed with an overwhelming majority of 40 votes in favor, four votes against and six abstentions.

“The super majority of member thought that this was something that they wanted to go on record about,” Mr. Cohen said.

The BDS movement, popularized by critics of Israel for about a decade, seeks to boycott the nation for its handling of the conflict with Palestinians.

 

Engel bashed Trump Jr.’s
‘gas chamber’ reference

Rep. Eliot Engel has criticized Donald Trump Jr. for making a “gas chamber” reference when talking about the news media’s treatment of Republican and Democratic presidential nominees. 

The son of Republican nominee Donald Trump accused news media of favoring Hillary Clinton in the presidential race. 

“I mean, if Republicans were doing that, they’d be warming up the gas chamber right now. It’s a very different system - there’s nothing fair about it,” Mr. Trump Jr. said in and interview with a radio station in Philadelphia.

Mr. Engel criticized Mr. Trump for his use of the phrase gas chamber as a reference to the Holocaust.

“Everybody knows to what Donald Jr. was referring when he mentioned ‘a gas chamber,’ and there’s only one word for it: deplorable,” Mr. Engel said in a statement on Sept. 15.

Andrew Cohen, BDS, Eliot Engel, Donald Trump Jr, Anthony Capote

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