The Left needs to watch their words. But they couldn’t care less.
And now disgusting comments from this Democrat could end their career instantly.
A Post That Shouldn’t Need Explaining — But Does
On the same day that pro-Israel demonstrators gathered outside Brooklyn’s Gracie Mansion to protest Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s recent remarks on the Middle East, New York City Councilwoman Shahana Hanif took to social media to respond. What she posted would be considered a career-ending statement for any elected official in most American cities. In New York’s progressive political ecosystem, it may generate a news cycle and little else.
Hanif, a Brooklyn Democratic socialist who represents the 39th District — which includes Park Slope and portions of Borough Park, one of the most heavily Orthodox Jewish communities in the country — condemned pro-Israel protesters in a post that, according to the New York Post, included the phrase wishing Jewish demonstrators to h-ll.
The post represents a new low in a track record that already includes: voting against an “End Jew Hatred Day” resolution, which she called a “far-right” idea; boosting the phrase “globalize the intifada” on social media before being forced to apologize; insisting in the immediate aftermath of the October 7th massacre that “the root cause of this war is the illegal, immoral, and unjust occupation of the Palestinian people”; and getting arrested at a pro-Hamas rally in Bryant Park where protesters chanted “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
For that last post, Hanif ultimately apologized — in a private letter to Jewish community leaders, timed conspicuously to a primary challenge from a Jewish opponent, Maya Kornberg. Now, with that primary past, the apologetic posture appears to have ended.
A Representative Of Borough Park Who Wishes Her Jewish Constituents To h-ll
The 39th District is not an abstraction. It is one of the most diverse in New York City, encompassing the progressive brownstone communities of Park Slope and Carroll Gardens alongside Borough Park — home to one of the largest concentrations of Orthodox Jewish families in the United States. These are Hanif’s constituents. She is their elected representative. She receives a salary paid by New York City taxpayers to serve them.
The decision to post language condemning Jewish demonstrators to h-ll — whatever the specific wording — is not a political disagreement about policy in the Middle East. It is an expression of contempt for members of her own constituency who hold views she finds objectionable. That is not what elected representatives are paid to do. It is the kind of conduct that, in any other context, would generate demands for resignation from across the political spectrum.
NYC Republican Councilmember Joe Borelli was among the first to call for accountability. “Councilmember Hanif wishing Jewish constituents to h-ll is beyond the pale. She should be censured immediately,” he said. Hanif’s response to the criticism, per the New York Post, was defiant: she had no apology to offer and doubled down on the sentiment.
The Anti-Defamation League and several Jewish community organizations have issued statements condemning the post. As of publication, the Democratic Party leadership of the New York City Council had not issued a response.
The Broader Pattern — And Why The Silence Matters
Hanif’s post exists within a context that the local Democratic establishment has spent years systematically not acknowledging. New York City has seen a dramatic surge in antisemitic incidents since October 7th. The streets of Borough Park, Crown Heights, and Williamsburg have been the sites of confrontations, vandalism, and intimidation. Jewish residents have been harassed on public transit and outside synagogues. And throughout this period, the most vocal anti-Israel voices on the City Council — including Hanif — have either been quiet about antisemitism, slow to condemn it, or, as in this case, actively contributing to an atmosphere of hostility toward Jewish New Yorkers.
The test of whether New York City’s political institutions take antisemitism seriously is not what they say when confronted with unambiguous neo-N*zi imagery. It is how they respond when an elected official with a long documented history of hostility toward Jewish constituents posts language condemning them to eternal d*mnation. That test, as of this writing, is failing.
