By Ryan Schwach<\/p>\n
A group of Queens electeds and civic leaders are suing Mayor Zohran Mamdani over a Freedom of Information Law request demanding he explain his reasoning for eliminating an Adams administration executive order regarding the definition of antisemitism. <\/p>\n
The lawsuit aims to force answers to FOIL requests made in January that asks why Mamdani revoked an Adams-era executive order that adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance\u2019s definition of antisemitism. <\/p>\n
\u201cMayor Mamdani has chosen to stonewall, deflect, delay and deny any response,\u201d the lawsuit alleges. \u201cAs set forth in detail herein, this dilatory tactic on the part of the Mayor is disingenuous, arbitrary, capricious, unlawful, and contrary to the public interest of all New Yorkers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shortly after taking office, Mamdani issued EO\u2019s that revoked all of Adams\u2019 orders made after the date he was indicted on fraud charges on Sept, 26, 2024, including the IHRA antisemitism definition order. It was among his first acts as mayor. <\/p>\n
The moves, which also included divestment from Israeli bonds, were criticized by many in the city\u2019s Jewish community, who already had their qualms with Mamdani\u2019s stances on Israel and the conflict in Gaza. <\/p>\n
The suit called Mamdani\u2019s actions \u201canti-Israel\u201d and \u201canti-Jewish.\u201d <\/p>\n
The officials on the suit, which include Queens Councilmembers Joann Ariola, Vickie Paladino and Queens Civic Congress President Warren Schreiber, say FOILs were filed on Jan. 2 and Jan. 12 seeking to obtain the reasons for Mamdani\u2019s revoking of the EOs. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe purpose of the FOIL applications at issue in this proceeding is to decipher and obtain the documentary trail of information illuminating Mayor Mamdani\u2019s motives, policies, programs, legislative initiatives and budgetary priorities implicated within the EO,\u201d the lawsuit said. <\/p>\n
The FOIL requests internal documentation on the mayor\u2019s policies on Zionism and antisemitism. <\/p>\n
Although the City Law Department initially denied the requests, and they had to be refiled, on Feb. 11, they were acknowledged and the filers were told the city would aim to have answers for them by April 20.<\/p>\n
FOIL requests, often used by journalists and members of the public to get public information, take a notoriously long time to be answered \u2013 especially at the city level. <\/p>\n
The petitioners and their attorney Jack Lester, filed the lawsuit for Thursday, Feb. 19 due to its \u201curgency.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cThe issue affects, over a million people in New York City, and it’s not your typical policy<\/p>\n
decision, and it’s not your typical FOIL,\u201d said Lester. \u201cSo there has to be some urgency behind it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe driving force behind the lawsuit and behind the FOIL is that this was his first act in office,\u201d he added, calling Mamdani\u2019s move \u201cunprecedented.\u201d <\/p>\n
Ariola told the Eagle she was also displeased with the wait. <\/p>\n
“Freedom of Information is supposed to be just that: free,\u201d she said in a statement to the Eagle. \u201cInstead of the requested information being freely handed over, however, we are seeing delays and stonewalls from the administration. As usual with this city’s bureaucracy, we are going to have to fight in order to get to the truth, and that is why we’ve filed this lawsuit.”<\/p>\n
City Hall did not respond to requests for comment on the suit on Wednesday. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Ryan Schwach A group of Queens electeds and civic leaders are suing Mayor Zohran Mamdani over a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138879,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-138878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}