A nonprofit with deep ties to anti-Israel activist Linda Sarsour, strong supporter of New York City's Democrat socialist Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, reportedly has received more than $4 million in taxpayer money.
The revelation raises questions about how far Mamdani's administration will go in funding radical activism.
Public records reviewed by The Washington Free Beacon showed that the Arab American Association of New York, which Sarsour ran for more than a decade, received $3.3 million from New York City and $854,000 from New York state between 2017 and 2024.
Much of the city money cannot even be traced to a specific agency, with watchdog Open the Books flagging opaque payments, including one $60,000 disbursement from the Department of Small Business Services.
Those dollars flowed even as Sarsour built a national profile as one of the country's loudest anti-Israel voices, comparing Zionism to "white supremacy," championing the pro-Palestine BDS (boycott, divestment, sanctions) movement, and embracing figures such as anti-Jew Louis Farrakhan and convicted terrorist Rasmea Odeh.
Sarsour's extremism grew so toxic that even the founder of the Women's March demanded she resign for letting antisemitism infect the group, the Free Beacon reported.
Now, with Mamdani preparing to take over city hall, Sarsour and AAANY are poised to wield even more influence.
Mamdani and Democrat Gov. Kathy Hochul have refused to say whether AAANY's generous city and state funding will continue.
The Beacon noted that Sarsour has called Mamdani her "favorite guy," donated the legal maximum to his campaign, and publicly vowed she will not let him "do whatever the hell he wants when he gets to city hall."
As the New York Post reported, Sarsour bragged on social media that she would stay "outside" the administration specifically to pressure Mamdani to keep his radical promises on policing and Israel.
That pressure comes backed by serious cash. At a Council on American-Islamic Relations conference, Sarsour boasted that a CAIR-aligned super PAC, the Unity and Justice Fund, was the largest institutional donor to a pro-Mamdani PAC — fueled, she said, by "Muslim money" making up as much as 80% of its donors.
The Jerusalem Post detailed how CAIR-linked entities poured at least six figures into the pro-Mamdani effort, even as CAIR's national leadership came under fire for comments celebrating Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, massacre.
AAANY's current director, Marwa Janini, is cut from the same ideological cloth.
A former Students for Justice in Palestine activist, she signed a petition urging worldwide boycotts of Israel and steered AAANY to lobby for Mamdani's "Not on Our Dime" bill, which would punish New York charities for alleged "unauthorized support" of Israeli communities in the West Bank.
The group also helped organize the "Flood Brooklyn for Palestine" demonstration just days after Oct. 7, a street action that devolved into chaos as thousands of protesters blocked roads, lit fires, and hurled eggs at NYPD officers.
Police arrested around two dozen people. Organizers openly declared they were not merely calling for a ceasefire, but also for "an end to the occupation."
Critics warn that a network of radical nonprofits, CAIR-aligned money, and a Democrat socialist mayor-elect is a dangerous mix for a city that is home to the world's second-largest Jewish community.
As The Post has noted, Jewish New Yorkers are already bracing for more anti-Israel demonstrations, less support for law enforcement, and a municipal government increasingly sympathetic to those who view Israel and its Jewish supporters as the enemy.
Charlie McCarthy ✉
Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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