Global2 hours ago

🇵🇸 New York's three leading Palestinian grassroots groups, PAL-Awda, the Palestinian Youth Movement and Within Our Lifetime, are pressing Mayor Zohran Mamdani to act on a shared (mostly) set of demands. They plan to protest an event in Queens on Sunday at 1 p.m. held by Nefesh B'Nefesh, a nonprofit that helps North American Jews move to Israel and to illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank. The location has not yet been announced.

PAL-Awda said Mamdani has offered symbolic gestures while ignoring demands "indisputably within his control." Some are and some are not. Here is what the groups want, and what the mayor can do: 🔹 Fire Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch and disband the NYPD's Strategic Response Group: Both are within his power. The mayor appoints the commissioner and can replace her at any time. Mamdani promised to disband the SRG during his campaign and said in January he was discussing how with Tisch. 🔹 Stop sales of West Bank settlement land in the city: Mamdani can't ban the sales outright, but he can refer them to the state attorney general and have the city's consumer protection agency investigate them as deceptive or unconscionable trade practices. Advocates argue sellers mislead buyers by failing to disclose that the homes sit on occupied land, where Palestinian owners can contest titles and settlements are deemed illegal under international law. If the agency agreed, it could fine sellers, seek court orders and warn the public. It would likely not lead to the illegal sales stopping. 🔹 Cut tax exemptions for groups that host the sales: This is doubtful though an untested approach may work. State law sets property tax exemptions for religious and nonprofit groups, and the city's finance department, run by a Mamdani appointee, decides whether a property still qualifies. It can't revoke a synagogue's or nonprofit's exemption outright. It could only tax the specific space used for non-exempt purposes, such as a hall rented out for commercial real estate sales. Any cut would likely face a court challenge, since institutions can argue a one-day event is incidental to their religious mission, ie a synagogue may argue its main use is still religious and exempt under law. 🔹 Block military cargo flights to Israel from JFK: Almost entirely out of his hands. The airport is run by the Port Authority, controlled by the governors of New York and New Jersey, and arms exports fall under federal law. 🔹 Divest the City University of New York, the city's public university system, from war and "settler-colonial" funding: This is outside his direct control, though he has some influence. CUNY is governed by a Board of Trustees, most of them appointed by the governor and a smaller share by the mayor, and investment decisions rest with the board and the colleges' private foundations. Mamdani could appoint trustees who back divestment as seats open and use the city's funding of CUNY's community colleges as leverage. But he can't order divestment himself.

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