Congressional Candidate Niou Supports BDS, Loses Endorsement

By Reuvain Borchardt

NEW YORK — Congressional candidate Assemblywoman Yuh-Line Niou has expressed support for the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement as a matter of freedom of speech and freedom to protest, causing her to lose an endorsement from an Assembly colleague.

“I believe in the right to protest as a fundamental tenet of western democracy, so I do support BDS,” Niou said in an email to Jewish Insider, shortly after a phone interview with that outlet in which she had not explicitly stated her stance on BDS.

Niou, who represents the Lower East Side in the state Assembly, is one of over a dozen candidates running in the Democratic primary for an open seat in New York’s 10th congressional district, which includes Lower Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn including Park Slope and Boro Park below 14th Avenue.

Asked repeatedly during the Jewish Insider interview about her stance on BDS, the progressive lawmaker expressed support for the right to protest but refrained from directly addressing the merits of the movement, which portrays itself as placing economic pressure in what it deems occupied Palestinian territories, but which Israel supporters say is dedicated to destroying the Israeli economy and thus Israel completely.

“It’s really important to make sure that we can speak up against anything that we feel is unjust,” Niou told Jewish insider during the phone interview, the outlet reported. “It is the right of every American, I think, to exercise their right to free speech as they see fit, and I think that we should not punish those who voice their support of protected speech activities. I think that’s the core of deliberative democracy. I think that this is such a bedrock issue, the right to use your voice and use your dollars to create social change.”

Pressed for her stance on the BDS movement, the candidate emphasized that it’s important for people to be able to criticize government, saying that, “Americans are allowed to be able to decide on what they want to do when it comes to” their own buying practices.

Niou disagreed with the notion that the BDS movement is antisemitic, saying it a free-speech movement.

“People think that the BDS movement is in some way antisemitic, but I don’t think that it is,” she said. “I think that it’s making sure that people can have the right to be able to have free speech.”

Pressed yet again for her stance on the merits of the movement, Niou said, “I think that there are concepts of what BDS is and I understand where certain people are coming from, but I think that I disagree with the purpose of what it is. I think I disagree with what people are saying it’s doing, but I think that everybody has the right to engage in political, social or economic statements about how your own country is responding to other countries or to what other countries are doing. I think that that is your right as an American.”

Finally, in the follow-up email to Jewish Insider after the phone interview, Niou expressed support for BDS, but again did not address the merits of the movement itself, saying, “I believe in the right to protest as a fundamental tenet of western democracy, so I do support BDS.”

Assemblyman Brian Cunningham, who represents the heavily Orthodox Jewish Crown Heights neighborhood, had previously endorsed Niou in the race, but withdrew his endorsement after the Jewish Insider story was published on Monday.

“I have traveled to Israel and seen firsthand the realities on the ground,” Cunningham said in a statement to Hamodia. “I unequivocally oppose the BDS movement, and all that it stands for. I will not support a candidate that fails to recognize Israel’s right to exist by endorsing a movement that seeks to destroy our democratic ally Israel.

“I am therefore withdrawing my endorsement of Yuh-Line Niou.”

Cunningham did not immediately say whom he would endorse.

Cunningham’s endorsement withdrawal was praised by Crown Heights activist Rabbi Yaacov Behrman.

“We need more leaders like Assemblymember Brian Cunningham – bold, courageous, and unafraid to speak the truth,” said Behrman.

Former New York City mayor Bill de Blasio, a prominent pro-Israel progressive and one of Niou’s opponents in the congressional race, tweeted in response to the Jewish Insider article, “The BDS movement does not recognize the right or need for Jewish statehood. That is unacceptable. I have always opposed BDS and will build a strong coalition within the Democratic Party to stop BDS from undermining Israel’s economic & physical security.”

Another noted pro-Israel progressive, Bronx Congressman Ritchie Torres, also criticized Niou, tweeting, “BDS is not merely a ‘protest.’ It takes the sinister position that Israel should no longer exist as a Jewish state. It’s an eliminationist movement at its core, one that should itself be protested by any public official professing a concern for peace.

“The right position is and has always been a two-state solution — the peaceful coexistence of a Jewish state and a Palestinian state.”

The Niou campaign did not immediately respond to Hamodia’s request for comment on Cunningham’s endorsement withdrawal.

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rborchardt@hamodia.com