NOVANEWS
A Jewish Councilman Who Said ‘Palestine Does Not Exist’
A Jewish Councilman Who Said ‘Palestine Does Not Exist’ Loses Seat on Immigration Committee
Kalman Yeger, a city councilman from Brooklyn who represents Borough Park, in 2012.CreditCreditDave Sanders for The New York Times
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New York City, home to the largest Jewish population outside Israel, has often served as a proxy battleground for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Mayors — dating back from Robert F. Wagner, who in 1957 barred a welcome for a Saudi king he deemed anti-Jewish, to Bill de Blasio, who in 2015 canceled a plan to meet Palestinians in the occupied West Bank— have been forced to confront the highly charged issue.
But as more Palestinian immigrants have settled in New York, the political calculus has grown slightly more complicated, as seen last week, when Kalman Yeger, a Brooklyn councilman who represents the Orthodox Jewish community of Borough Park, took to Twitter on Wednesday to state that “Palestine does not exist.”
Kalman Yeger@KalmanYegerPalestine does not exist.
There, I said it again.
Also, Congresswoman Omar is an antisemite. Said that too.
Thanks for following me.zainab iqbal@planetzainabbrooklyn council member calls ilhan omar an antisemite. this is the same council member who has repeatedly said that palestine does not exist and refers to them as “so-called palestinians”https://bklyner.com/councilman-kalman-yeger-says-palestine-doesnt-exist-refers-to-people-as-so-called-palestinians/ … https://twitter.com/kalmanyeger/status/1110609703116173314 …
Mr. Yeger’s remarks came after Zainab Iqbal, a journalist for Bklyner, reported that Mr. Yeger had referred to “so-called Palestinians” in a tweet. He responded by calling Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota anti-Semitic. The councilman’s pronouncements led to a cascade of criticism calling his comments “hateful” and “Islamophobic,” and prompted demands for an apology and his removal from the City Council’s immigration committee.
