Tania Fernandes Anderson, a Democrat whose 7th District includes Roxbury and parts of the South End and Dorchester, issued a reaction on social media on Wednesday after initial reporting of an FBI investigation, the nature of which is unclear.
“My job is to show up and to fight for you,” she wrote. “I will continue to do just that; the people’s work.”
Boston city councilors are elected to two-year terms, and there is no limit on the number of terms an individual can serve.
In October 2023, days after Hamas terrorists infiltrated and attacked Jewish communities in southern Israel—killing 1,200 men, women and children—Fernandes Anderson introduced a resolution in the city council that described the massacre as a “military operation,” accused Israel of “apartheid” and “war crimes,” and called for an immediate ceasefire in Israel and “occupied Palestine.”
It was met with outrage from some of her colleagues.
“They dragged people out of their houses. They killed people that were in a concert. It’s not a ‘massive military operation,’” said Frank Baker, a city councilor and Democrat representing Boston’s 3rd District. “Those little girls there that were at that rock concert, that were having a fun time, that are being raped now, let’s return them, and then we’ll talk about a ceasefire.”
Fernandes Anderson, 45, who is a black convert to Islam, defended the resolution by making an apparent reference to the conspiracy theory that the “original Jews” were African.
“Arabs are semites, so antisemitism applies totally to Arabs, I don’t get it,” she said. “And it applies to the original Jews, the black people in Ethiopia.”
The resolution ultimately did not pass.
In April, Fernandes Anderson drafted another ceasefire resolution that accused Israel of “genocide,” the Boston Herald reported. After removing much of the anti-Israel language, the Boston City Council passed a ceasefire resolution that also called for the release of all hostages.
Fernandes Anderson has not been indicted, and the investigation details remain unclear. In 2023, she admitted that she violated state ethics rules after hiring family members as staff; for that, she paid a civil penalty. In November, she paid a $1,750 penalty for failing to properly disclose tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions.
Her husband, Tanzerious Anderson, is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for first-degree murder. The two married while Anderson was incarcerated.
