Democratic Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan is under fire for speaking at the city’s Ramallah American Club, which has been around for decades and has worked to preserve what the club calls “Palestinian heritage.”
Jeremy Redfern, a spokesman for Attorney General James Uthmeier, spotlighted Deegan speaking at the event with a provocative description.
“Today, on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan spoke next to a Palestinian flag and behind a keffiyeh commonly worn by and associated with Hamas terrorists,” he posted to X.
Uthmeier has zeroed in on various issues with the administration, including the city requiring people carrying guns into public buildings to sign in from 2023 until the middle of last year, a practice he has said is “unlawful.” This is just the latest criticism from his office.
Unlike previous critiques, the Mayor took this one personally. Deegan, a Jacksonville native of Lebanese descent who attended Bishop Kenny High School and whose cousin, Tommy Hazouri Sr., served as Mayor, responded by clarifying what the club was and shading Redfern for being unfamiliar with Jacksonville.
“Anyone from Jacksonville knows the Ramallah Club is a Palestinian civic organization that was founded by Christians from Ramallah and that has been contributing to our city for more than a century,” Deegan said.
“I was proud to be joined on the dais by Councilman Ron Salem, a longtime member of the club, and was pleased to see Congressman John Rutherford there as well to celebrate the club’s impact on Saturday. It’s disappointing to see partisan actors use people’s rich heritage to divide our community.”
Interestingly, Salem took issue with the optics Deegan created by posting the pictures from Saturday on Tuesday, calling for an apology not for speaking at the event, but for not mentioning International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
“The Ramallah community is an important part of the fabric of our city. I’ll always take part in recognizing that as my heritage and I’m proud of that,” Salem said.
“Last night at the Jacksonville Council meeting my colleagues and I took a moment of silence and reflection for the atrocities committed during the Holocaust. This day serves as reflection and a reminder of the victims and that horror must never again happen. I find it appalling that Mayor Deegan failed to recognize that yesterday and I think she owes the Jacksonville Jewish community an apology.”
The Mayor’s Office rejects Salem’s framing.
“Mayor Deegan has consistently demonstrated her commitment to standing with the Jewish community, and against bigotry and hatred in our city,” a spokesperson said. “That is why she became the first Jacksonville mayor to celebrate Jewish American Heritage Month with a ceremony in the City Hall Atrium; why she spoke at the 1-year remembrance of October 7th at the Jacksonville Jewish Center; why she has repeatedly called for all elected officials to speak out against rising antisemitism in Florida; why she was the first local leader to denounce hateful messaging projected onto Everbank Stadium; why she appeared as the keynote speaker at the Jewish Federation’s screening of ‘A Tree of Life: The Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooting;; and why she will continue her commitment to make our city a place where all its residents feel safe and heard.”
Deegan had been called out in 2024 by the Republican Party of Florida for saying Donald Trump, who was then running for a second term as President, would put undocumented immigrants “in what would really amount to a concentration camp-type situation to round them out of the country.”
Many listeners associate the phrase “concentration camps” with the Nazi German facilities that killed millions of people during the Holocaust, discounting Deegan’s caveat that she wasn’t “suggesting anything beyond” the “concentration camp-type situation” in the process.
Yet despite his call to Deegan to apologize, Salem has also taken sharp criticism.
In October 2023, Salem, a Republican of Palestinian descent, was the sole “no” vote on a City Council resolution “in Support of Israel as It Defends Itself in the War Launched by the Terrorist Organization Hamas.” The measure stipulated that the Council “stands unequivocally allied with Israel” during its military operations.
Salem paid a price for his dissidence. He had to take security precautions for weeks afterward and faced calls for his resignation.
American Federation of Ramallah, Palestine President Joy B Freiha also commented, saying the “characterization of Mayor Deegan simply doesn’t reflect what actually occurred.”
“She was there at the Ramallah Club’s invitation, along with (Rutherford and Salem), to witness the swearing in of the Club’s new officers,” said Freiha, a club member herself who is personally very outspoken about the ongoing turmoil in the Middle East.
This issue illustrates Jacksonville’s complicated cultural tapestry, which may not make sense to those outside the city. Whether it’s an issue in the upcoming race for Mayor remains to be seen, but it appears to be politically potent.