Anti-Israel NYC council members ripped for ‘Ceasefire Now’ shirts

Members of the group have been called out before for their anti-Israel sentiments.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Nine New York City councilmembers came under fire Wednesday after they wore matching t-shirts to a City Hall meeting that said “Ceasefire Now.”

While it was not noted for most of the two-hour session, Brooklyn Councilman Kalman Yeger spoke up towards the end, saying sarcastically, “It’s good to see someone caring about life. If you missed them wearing a sweatshirt with ‘Ceasefire’ at any time when Hamas was raining daily missiles on Israel or any time in their 22 months that they served on this council prior to Oct. 7, I missed it too.”

Former state Assemblyman Daniel Rosenthal backed Yeger up on social media, posting to X, “Astonishing to see so-called ‘progressives’ call for a ceasefire while Hamas broke a previous ceasefire because they wanted to keep the female hostages to rape them.”

On Monday, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller had said that “It seems one of the reasons [Hamas] don’t want to turn women over they’ve been holding hostage, and the reason this pause fell apart, is they don’t want those women to be able to talk about what happened to them during their time in custody.”

Hamas is still holding 15 women and two children, even though the terror organization had committed to exchange all its female and underage abductees for terrorists jailed in Israel, at a 3-to-1 ratio. It did release 86 in six lots, and a further 24 male Thai hostages in a separate deal arranged through Iran, before resuming its rocket fire on Israel, thereby breaking the temporary truce.

Yeger’s outburst had no effect on his anti-Israel colleagues, as evidenced by a post by one of them to social media following the meeting.

“Proud to stand in solidarity with some of my @nyccouncil colleagues today at the Stated Meeting calling for an immediate and permanent #ceasefire,” Councilmember Jennifer Gutiérrez (D-Brooklyn) wrote as a caption on a photo of herself with the others, including Shahana Hanif and Charles Barron, who have made public anti-Israel statements in the past.

Six days after the Hamas invasion in which the terrorists massacred 1,200 men, women and children, Hanif had defended Hamas, saying, “The root cause of this war is the illegal, immoral, and unjust occupation of the Palestinian people.” The Democrat, who also officially represents the Democratic Socialists party, was arrested later that month at a “Cease Fire Now Rally for Gaza.”

Also in October, Barron, a former member of the militant Black Panther party, called himself “1,000% pro-Palestinian” and blamed Israel for the Hamas rampage in a tirade at City Hall.

The picture engendered criticism from ordinary New Yorkers as well as Yeger, who saw it in person. Some on X blasted the group for being “losers,” and “detached from reality.” Others pointed out that they should be concentrating their efforts more on local issues, such as one who wrote, “’Release the Hostages’ or ‘Hamas Must Surrender’ would help bring about a ceasefire and are far catchier than these lazy T-Shirts. Should I assume the city council has solved the mental health crisis that was being discussed ad naseum earlier this year if they have time to play dress up at the office?”

One particularly pithy poster wrote, “Ah, our best and brightest. This is what identity politics and intersectionality gets us, folks. A group of morons who have unwittingly become useful idiots for an Islamofascist death cult halfway around the world.”

anti-Israel activismAntisemitismGaza ceasefireHamasNew York City