{"id":135620,"date":"2026-01-28T23:24:06","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T23:24:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/135620\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T23:24:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T23:24:06","slug":"jacksonville-mayor-condemned-for-appearing-with-palestinian-flag-keffiyeh-on-international-holocaust-remembrance-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/135620\/","title":{"rendered":"Jacksonville Mayor Condemned for Appearing With Palestinian Flag, Keffiyeh on International Holocaust Remembrance Day"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Yesterday, on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan <a style=\"color: #000080;\" href=\"https:\/\/floridapolitics.com\/archives\/776592-redfern-deegan-ramallah\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">spoke at an event in her city<\/a> where a Palestinian flag and keffiyeh were prominently displayed on stage.<\/p>\n<p>Lisa Katz, Chief Government Affairs Officer of the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM), released the following statement in response:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhether or not the timing of the event was intentional, the date mattered. International Holocaust Remembrance Day is a moment for moral clarity and social unity, and it offers an annual opportunity to honor the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis, teach the next generation the lessons of the past, and confront antisemitism directly and unconditionally.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cStanding in front of highly-charged political symbols on this day was profoundly tone-deaf at best and intentionally provocative at worst, and it predictably landed as hurtful to Jacksonville Jews already on edge over rising antisemitic threats.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Jewish community, and all Jacksonvillians who believe in the \u2018Never Again\u2019 vow, deserve far better from their elected leaders. Mayors set the tone for their cities. City Hall should be a place where temperatures are lowered, not inflamed. Mayor Deegan must now acknowledge the pain she caused and reaffirm her commitment to leading city-level action against antisemitism.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOnly by doing so can she ensure that future International Holocaust Remembrance Days in Jacksonville remain centered on memory, education, and solidarity, not division, conflict, and hate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Congratulations to the Ramallah Club\u2019s new officers, and thank you to the outgoing leaders. I\u2019m grateful for the legacy you\u2019ve built and our shared commitment to Jacksonville: a city where every community is valued, where the next generation leads with pride in their heritage,\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/MkVzOmlnQC\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/MkVzOmlnQC<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Mayor Donna Deegan (@MayorDeegan) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MayorDeegan\/status\/2016195257759605041?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">January 27, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yesterday, on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan spoke at an event in her city where&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135621,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117,10267,4571],"class_list":["post-135620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-press-release","tag-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}