As of Monday, Brooklyn Councilman Kalman Yeger is no longer a member of the city council’s immigration committee because of a tweet in which he states “Palestine does not exist.”
Apparently, Council Speaker Corey Johnson preferred not to engage in a debate with the councilmember on the merits of his assertion (Palestine was the name the Romans gave the province of Judea in 135 CE after the collapse of the Bar Kochva rebellion, so in that sense it did exist, but since then the term “Palestinian” was not political but geographical – see “Palestinian Talmud.” Until the 1917 Balfour Declaration, the area was known as Southern Syria. What Councilman Yeger referred to was the notion of a Palestinian nation deserving a Palestinian country, which only emerged as an Arab reaction to the Zionist movement).
Instead, Speaker Johnson declared it was not “appropriate” for Yeger to be handling Gotham’s immigration issues because of his views on the last two millennia in Southern Syria – possibly in case a whole bunch of southern Syrians apply for residency.
“I found Council Member Yeger’s comments completely unacceptable,” Johnson stated. “They were dehumanizing to Palestinians and divisive, and have no place in New York City. […] What he said is totally inappropriate, and sends the wrong message about our values.”
Speaker Johnson’s claim to fame is that, back in 2000, as captain of his high school football team, he came out as being gay. He continued his public life as a prominent LGBTQ leader in NY City, which, eventually, qualified him to be the next gay council speaker (you don’t have to be gay to become the speaker, but it helps, a lot).
How does being extremely gay qualify Johnson to pass judgment on historic and political issues such as whether or not there’s such a thing as Palestine? We looked him up in Wikipedia, and he did spend almost a full semester at George Washington University, so hey, like, whatever.
How does Councilman Kalman Yeger’s statement send “the wrong message about our values”? Good question – is free speech part of our values? Probably not.
By the way, Yeger also declared: “Congresswoman Omar is an anti-Semite.”
At this rate, the Orthodox Jewish councilman is liable to declare that the sun rises in the morning and that winter beats summer for coldness.
Here’s the part we should be worried about in this really, really grotesque act of NYC liberalism running amok: Linda Sarsour, a dyed-in-the-wool anti-Semite and very clever Arab activist declared following Yeger’s dismissal: “No Longer will anti-Palestinian, anti-Muslim comments by elected officials go unchecked. It’s a new day.”
Man, is it ever.
Update: A reader informed us that Johnson needs 2 more votes to kick Yeger off the committee.
I respect the Speaker’s right to run the Council as he sees fit. It’s unfortunate that political correctness takes precedence over objective fact. Of course, there are Palestinians. However, the fact remains there is no Palestinian state.https://t.co/nRnIH3nk4u
— Kalman Yeger (@KalmanYeger)