{"id":376477,"date":"2026-10-18T22:34:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-18T22:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/376477\/"},"modified":"2026-10-18T22:34:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-18T22:34:09","slug":"nys-comptroller-dinapoli-stands-by-investment-in-israel-bonds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/376477\/","title":{"rendered":"NYS Comptroller DiNapoli stands by investment in Israel Bonds"},"content":{"rendered":"

State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli <\/a>vowed to continue investing pension funds in Israel bonds despite a growing divestment push from pro-Palestinian activists \u2014 including Mayor Zohran Mamdani.<\/p>\n

DiNapoli\u2019s defense of holding Israel government bonds in the state\u2019s massive $309.7 billion pension fund portfolio comes a week after city Comptroller Mark Levine <\/a>broke a campaign promise and said he would not reinvest city pension money into Israel bonds.<\/p>\n

The comptrollers are tasked with handling the pension investments for their governments. <\/p>\n

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a ceremony marking the opening of Colombia\u2019s new embassy in Jerusalem, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jerusalem, Israel. ABIR SULTAN\/EPA\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

\u201cWe continue to look for investment opportunities in Israel and globally that will benefit the Fund,\u201d said a spokesman for DiNapoli,<\/a> a Democrat seeking re-election to a fifth term next month against Republican challenger Joseph Hernandez.<\/p>\n

Levine is also a Democrat.<\/p>\n

He told pro-Israeli activist Dov Hikind that his focus on Israeli investments includes \u201cnot just bonds\u201d but also Israeli firms selling public stock.<\/p>\n

The New York State pension system has more than $360 million invested in the Jewish state. The investment in Israel bonds has not changed.<\/p>\n

MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber, left, and New York State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli present the New Capital Dashboard Program via online access inside the MTA\u2019s training room at Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan, New York. James Messerschmidt<\/p>\n

Hikind, a former Brooklyn assemblyman and founder of American Against Antisemitism, applauded DiNapoli and slammed Levine for \u201ccaving to pressure from Zohran Mamdani\u201d by not reinvesting in Israel Bonds.<\/p>\n

He praised DiNapoli for not <\/a>abandoning Israel.<\/p>\n

\u201cComptroller DiNapoli is looking to make additional investments in Israel I asked him to do more,\u201d Hikind said.<\/p>\n

The previous New York City comptroller, Brad Lander, divested $40 million in Israel bonds that New York City had invested in since the 1970s.<\/p>\n

Levine said he\u2019s decided not to reinvest the Big Apple\u2019s pension funds in Israel bonds \u2014 a dramatic reversal from a pledge he made during his successful campaign last year.<\/p>\n

Demonstrators march up 6th Avenue during the Palestinian Youth Movement\u2019s March for Palestine, \u201cFor the Living, The Martyrs and The Land,\u201d in the West Village neighborhood of New York. Sachyn Mital\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

Levine told the New York Times he made the decision solely on financial grounds.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always said this would be based on financial considerations only, not politics \u2014 that\u2019s still my position,\u201d Levine, who is Jewish and a professed backer of Israel, told the Times on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not what Levine said during a June 2025 Democratic Party primary debate<\/a> for comptroller\u2014a role in charge of managing $325 billion in pensions for the city government workforce.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a globally diversified portfolio, and that should include investments in Israel and Israel bonds, which have paid solid dividends for 75 years,\u201d Levine said during the debate against Justin Brannan, a former Brooklyn councilman.<\/p>\n

Tom DiNapoli participates in the annual Columbus Day Parade on Fifth Avenue on Oct. 12, 2026, in New York City. Ron Adar \/ M10s \/ SplashNews.com<\/p>\n

Mamdani lauded Levine\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cI welcome the comptroller\u2019s decision It is something that I\u2019ve said in the past that I don\u2019t believe that our city should purchase Israel bonds,\u201d Mamdani said last week.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t purchase the bonds of any other sovereign nation. I don\u2019t think that we should make an exception when it comes to Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Levine\u2019s office emphasized that the city\u2019s pension system still has $285.42 million invested in other Israel-based \u201cpublic fixed-income investments,\u201d though not in state of Israel Bonds.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Comptroller is a strong supporter of Israel,\u201d a spokesperson for the city comptroller said. \u201cDecisions about whether to invest Cash Desk funds in Israel Bonds, or any other financial instrument, are made strictly on financial grounds, based on what best serves the City and its pensioners.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli vowed to continue investing pension funds in Israel bonds despite a growing divestment push…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":376478,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[18800,10447,60,57,9,11,10,49,51,50,29372,10232,58,82],"class_list":["post-376477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-bonds","tag-comptroller","tag-israel","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news","tag-office-of-the-comptroller","tag-tom-dinapoli","tag-us-news","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376477","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=376477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376477\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/376478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=376477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=376477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=376477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}