NYC Council probing pro-terror event, speaker vows ‘zero tolerance,’ after ToI report

NEW YORK — Lawyers for New York City are investigating an event that sold merchandise in support of terrorist groups, a spokesperson at the New York City Council said last week.

Vendors sold keychains, stickers and pins in support of US-designated terrorist groups during a fundraiser at the Muslim American Society youth center in Brooklyn last week, in an incident first reported by The Times of Israel.

The merchandise had the logos of Hamas, Hezbollah and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and images of the late terrorist leaders Yahya Sinwar of Hamas and Hassan Nasrallah of Hezbollah.

The US State Department has designated all three groups as Foreign Terrorist Organizations.

Other items said “Death to the IDF” and “Let’s go bomb Tel Aviv,” showed Leila Khaled a PFLP member who helped hijack a plane in 1969, or had inverted red triangles, a Hamas symbol.

The New York Post reported that the Muslim American Society’s New York branch has received $265,000 in discretionary funds from the New York City Council since 2023. Council members are granted budgets for discretionary funds, which they allocate to nonprofits of their choosing to fill local needs.

The Muslim American Society of New York is a nonprofit that had revenue of $781,000 in grants last year.

A spokesperson for New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin told The New York Post that the council will block $80,000 in additional funds to the society pending an investigation by city lawyers, and may ban future funding to the group.

“The City Council has zero tolerance for violations of our standards,” the spokesperson said. “Funding to this organization is being paused pending a comprehensive internal review. Any nonprofit found to be supporting organizations that threaten the United States government is unacceptable and incompatible with City Council funding.”

Soon after taking the council’s helm last month, Menin, its first Jewish speaker, laid out a plan for combating antisemitism in the city. Jews are targeted in hate crimes in the city more than all other groups combined, and the election of Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a longtime anti-Israel activist, has raised concerns about community safety.

The fundraiser took place at the Muslim American Society Youth Center in Brooklyn, according to the social media posts. Organizers billed the event, called Thrift4Sudan, as an exhibit and pop-up store, and said the proceeds would “go to Sudan.”

Also at the event was a placard showing a masked figure alongside the quote, “Whomever wants to snatch our weapons, we will snatch their soul, God willing,” a rough translation of a statement by the late spokesperson for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group, Abu Hamza.

A video showing the items was posted by Pal-Awda, a hardline anti-Zionist activist group that caused an uproar by chanting for Hamas outside a Queens synagogue earlier this month. The youth center posted a video showing the display from another angle.

The event organizers advertised that six vendors had participated. One of the vendors sells the pins for terrorist groups and items that call for violence against Israel, and says that the proceeds are donated to families in Gaza. Some of the organizers’ social media posts about the event have been taken down since the initial Times of Israel report.

The activists have previously sold the pro-terror items in city parks.

The center and the Muslim American Society did not respond to requests for comment.

The political director at the youth center, Hannah Towfeik, and the executive director of the society’s New York branch, Sherif Ahmed, are on New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s transition team.

Days before the event, a speaker at the youth center said his “life mission” was to fight against the US government and the US army “to the last breath.”