NYC's New Mayor Is Coming for Pro-Israel Charities 

A group of left-wing New York state lawmakers reintroduced legislation Friday targeting nonprofits that fund Israeli settlement activity, reviving a bill that collapsed in 2023, but under starkly different political conditions. Its original author is now mayor of New York City.

The bill, formally titled "Not On Our Dime! New York's End Financing of Israeli Settler Violence Act," would authorize the state attorney general to dissolve nonprofits that knowingly fund settlement activity, impose fines of at least one million dollars, and open the door for Palestinians harmed by settler violence to sue local charitable organizations directly.

The legislation was introduced Friday, during the Shavuot holiday, by Assemblywoman Diana Moreno and Senator Jabari Brisport, with backing from more than a dozen lawmakers including Senators Kristen Gonzalez, Julia Salazar, and Robert Jackson.

The Mamdani factor

What separates this attempt from the last one is a single name: Zohran Mamdani.

The 2023 version of the bill was Mamdani's own initiative, introduced when he was still an assemblyman. It died fast, Jewish organizations mounted fierce opposition, legislators backed away, and it never reached a floor vote. Mamdani went on to run for mayor, and in January took office at City Hall.

During the campaign, he told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency he stood by the concept. Nonprofits receiving taxpayer subsidies, he said, "should not be supporting violations of international law" - and estimated the law would halt roughly sixty million dollars in annual transfers from New York organizations to settlement-linked groups.

Now, with Mamdani in the mayor's office and his allies pushing the bill in Albany, supporters believe the political math has changed.

What the bill would actually do

The legislation seeks to align New York state law with the Geneva Convention and the International Criminal Court, both of which classify Israeli presence beyond the Green Line — including East Jerusalem and the Old City — as illegal occupied territory. Organizations found to be knowingly financing activity in those areas could face dissolution, million-dollar penalties, and civil liability.

The scope alarmed Jewish groups when the bill first surfaced two years ago. They argued the definitions were broad enough to ensnare mainstream charities with no connection to settlement expansion — including volunteer ambulance services and humanitarian relief organizations operating in the region. That opposition was decisive in killing the 2023 version.

Whether the revised language addresses those concerns is not yet clear. Because the bill landed during Shavuot, leading Jewish organizations had not responded publicly to the new draft by the time of publication.

"Our tax dollars should not support violations of international law"

At a press conference in Long Island City, Senator Gonzalez framed the bill in moral terms. "We have a moral responsibility to protect human rights and act against displacement and violence," she said. "Our tax dollars should not support violations of international law in the West Bank or anywhere else."

The coalition backing the bill also includes Assemblywoman Emily Gallagher, Senator Claire Valdez, and Yonkers representative Nader Sayegh, among others.

The bill now heads into a legislature where its fate will depend, in part, on whether Mamdani's political weight in Albany can overcome the same wall of opposition that buried it two years ago.