NEW YORK, NY, February 27, 2025 — On Wednesday morning, dozens of organizations rallied on the steps of City Hall to oppose two proposed anti-protest bills — Council Speaker Julie Menin’s buffer zone bill around places of worship (Int 1-A) and Councilmember Eric Dinowitz’s buffer zone bill around educational facilities (Int 175-A). After the rally, over 75 New Yorkers testified against both pieces of legislation at the Council’s “Committee to Combat Hate” hearing — more than the number testifying in favor.
The hearing itself was a demonstration of how buffer zones inevitably target certain types of speech. Menin handpicked allies in favor of the bills and welcomed them into City Hall for a rotunda rally, packing the early panels of the hearing with her supporters. Meanwhile, opponents of Menin’s unconstitutional proposal were kept out in the cold for an hour, told there was no room, and called to give their testimony hours after the Speaker left.
Existing federal, state, and city laws already prohibit violence, threats, physical obstruction, trespass, and property damage near and houses of worship. The new proposed legislation instead criminalizes protest in public spaces, particularly protests against illegal sales of Palestinian land. These land sales, which are often hosted at synagogues, violate city, state, federal, and international laws.
Leena Widdi, an attorney with PAL-Awda, stated: “Not only are the sales accessible in a discriminatory manner, they are also selling land in occupied territory that by law is only available to Jewish people. Instead of this City Council and mayor prosecuting and preventing these sales under existing laws, we’re trying to create new laws to prevent the protest of these sales.”
“When houses of worship make decisions to host non-religious political events, they are making a choice with the knowledge that they might be protested for doing so,” Ben, an organizer from Jewish Voice for Peace NYC said at the rally outside City Hall. He added, “as Jewish New Yorkers, we demand our City Council members to vote ‘no’ against this dangerous and unnecessary bill that does not keep Jews safe in any sense, and instead crushes dissent.”
In the supposed anti-hate hearing, two associates of the NY-banned hate group Betar slandered anti-zionist Jews as “kapos” (Nazi collaborators) with no reprimand from Menin, Dinowitz, Salaam, or any of the other main bill sponsors, who likewise failed to speak up against the blatant Islamophobia on display by those who testified. One man, who recently bit a volunteer for Mayor Mamdani’s campaign, yelled “Islam is not a religion.”
The grassroots coalition of over 50 organizations opposing the bills demands City Council reject both bills and take tangible steps to end the illegal sale of stolen Palestinian land in New York.
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