Bronx, NY – In response to the inclusion of two anti-Semitic questions on the NYC Council candidate questionnaire from the NYC Chapter of DSA, Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz has issued the following statement:

“Asking candidates for municipal office to pledge not to visit Israel and to support the BDS movement is blatantly anti-Semitic and there is no place for hatred in our City (or anywhere else). We should be encouraging prospective public servants to keep an open mind about the diversity of perspectives in our community, not boycotting a specific country. If the questions were really about human rights, then they should also refer to countries like China, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iran, and North Korea. Furthermore, Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East so it is puzzling why they were singled out while oppressive autocracies were ignored. As far as I know, there is no comparable BDS movement being pushed on behalf of the victimized populations in these countries which indicates to me that BDS is more about anti-Semitism and destroying the state of Israel than about defending the rights of Palestinians.”

The specific question can be seen here and was first reported on Twitter by NY1’s Zack Fink.