Two New York City Council members sponsored a policy briefing on Islamophobia on Thursday featuring Mahmoud Khalil and other anti-Israel activists, hours before the council passed a legislation package combating antisemitism and establishing buffer zones for protests outside houses of worship and schools.
“This is not an event that we were aware of,” Council Speaker Julie Menin said at a press conference ahead of the vote. “This is not an event coming from the speaker’s office. This is not a City Council event. This is two council members who hosted the event.”
Council members Shahana Hanif—who opposed the inclusion of 1-B and 175-B, which address buffer zones around houses of worship and schools, in the legislation package—and Shekar Krishnan co-sponsored “Islamophobia in New York City: A Policy Perspective,” which was held in a City Hall conference room. A source familiar with the event told JNS that any council member can reserve conference rooms.
A flier for the policy briefing listed Khalil, who led the anti-Israel encampment at Columbia University and now faces potential deportation, as a speaker. (JNS sought comment from Hanif and Krishnan.)
It also listed Asad Dandia, a lecturer at the City University of New York; Rana Amdelhabid, executive director of Malikah; Badar Khan Suri, a fellow at Georgetown University; Baher Azmy, legal director of CCR; and Heba Khalil, state director for the New York Metro Chapter of EmgageUSA.
Council Minority Leader David Carr said he and his Republican colleagues denounced the policy briefing “that included radical terrorist sympathizers Mahmoud Khalil and Badar Khan Suri.”
In a statement shared by Carr, the New York City Council Minority Conference said the right to free speech “does not require an elective body to platform vile, antisemitic, anti-American bigots like some of our colleagues have done under the guise of a ‘policy perspective briefing’ at City Council offices.”
The statement calls Suri “an ardent Hamas supporter who publicly denied the atrocities of the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel.”
It noted that the timing, just before the vote, “sends a very clear message as to which side of history these people stand.”
