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By Erin Durkin
A pro-Palestinian Brooklyn City Councilmember is facing a strong primary challenge in a race roiled by local fallout from the conflict in the Middle East.
Challenger Maya Kornberg, who is Jewish, and incumbent Shahana Hanif, the first Muslim woman elected to the City Council, both say the race is not about Israel—an issue the City Council has zero power to influence. Yet pro-Israel donors have flocked to the contest, funding Kornberg’s campaign and a super PAC to help defeat Hanif in the politically engaged Park Slope district. Pro-Palestine activists and groups on the left, meanwhile, are rallying to defend Hanif, who co-chairs the Council’s Progressive Caucus.
Hanif has been vocal about her pro-Palestine views, getting arrested at a Midtown protest calling for a ceasefire in Gaza in October 2023. Along the way, she picked up critics who said she was not quick or forceful enough to condemn Hamas and objected to her response to antisemitic incidents and anti-Israel graffiti in the neighborhood.
"I've been a top target of conservatives and special interests since the very beginning," Hanif told Hell Gate. "As co-chair of the Progressive Caucus and the first Muslim woman Councilmember, it comes with the territory—but the vitriol has been intense. MAGA extremists, the right-wing New York Post, and REBNY-affiliated developers are targeting me, precisely because of my effective leadership and progressive vision for our city."
Kornberg, a researcher at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU, launched her campaign in December. She did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
The challenger got the endorsement of Solidarity PAC, a group formed to promote candidates in New York who share their "deep-rooted American values and pro-Israel beliefs" and "support the best interests of New York’s Jewish community"—a local equivalent of the national American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)—which has funneled money to her campaign.
Kornberg has raised $77,078 in private donations—$18,445 of that from outside the city—and qualified for $192,533 in public matching funds, campaign finance records show. Hanif has raised $82,645—$5,632 from outside the city—and qualified for $192,534 in matching funds.
Kornberg’s contributors include several wealthy pro-Israel figures who have also funded Republicans (though they give to Democrats as well), drawing ire from critics. She got the legal maximum contribution of $1,050 each from hedge fund billionaire Daniel Loeb and his wife Margaret. Loeb is perhaps best known in New York politics for once comparing Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart Cousins to the KKK, and is a big financial backer of Andrew Cuomo and congressional Republicans.
Another $2,100 came from Leonard Blavatnik, a Ukrainian-born billionaire who gave $1 million to Donald Trump’s first inauguration, and his wife.
Other donors who each gave Kornberg the $1,050 maximum include Adeena and David Rosen, who are major funders of Solidarity PAC and former Rep. Lee Zeldin’s campaign for governor; Alice Tisch, another Solidarity PAC funder; real estate billionaires Leonard and Edward Stern; and Gary and Linda Lauder, part-heirs to the Estée Lauder fortune who respectively funded the Democratic Majority for Israel and serve on an AIPAC regional board.
Solidarity PAC has not been listed as an intermediary in City Campaign Finance Board records—a potential violation of campaign finance laws—but New York Focus reported they appear to be behind $13,400 in donations to Kornberg's campaign, among $80,000 they have directed to seven City Council candidates.
Indivisible Brooklyn, a progressive activist group that has endorsed Hanif, sent an open letter to Kornberg asking her to refund several of her donations.
"We see these people always showing up to do the wrong thing, and now they're here in district 39," Adam Ring, a leadership team member at Indivisible Brooklyn, told Hell Gate. "Maya's campaign is being run on MAGA money."
In a statement posted online earlier this month, Kornberg decried the focus on money in the race, denouncing "lies that my campaign is being funded by AIPAC." AIPAC is not involved in the contest and typically focuses on national races, but criticism of Kornberg has focused on other pro-Israel groups and donors.
"For far too long, Jewish candidates have been attacked with antisemitic tropes of dual loyalty and being beholden to money. This irresponsible and antiemetic misinformation is unfortunately being proliferated here in District 39," she continued, charging that she’s been the target of a "smear campaign."
Hanif’s foes also formed the super PAC Brooklyn Bridgebuilders, with the explicit goal of unseating the Councilmember. Bronx Congressmember Ritchie Torres, an outspoken Israel supporter, headlined its first fundraiser. The group has raised about $80,000, organizers said.
They plan to do door knocking and phone banking campaigns and may run ads or send out mailers, and they’re considering also getting involved in the neighboring 38th district, where Democratic Socialists of America-backed Councilmember Alexa Avilés faces a challenge from the right from Ling Ye.
Among their grievances: Hanif was one of two councilmembers to vote against a resolution to establish "End Jew Hatred Day," which Hanif said she could not support because of its right-wing backers.
Hanif also once retweeted an image containing the slogan "globalize the intifada," since deleted. In a contentious meeting with a group of Jewish leaders, she said she did not have a problem with graffiti reading "Free Palestine."
"Her words and her actions were not making us feel unsafe—they were making us unsafe," said Andres Spokoiny, a founding member of Brooklyn Bridgebuilders. "I don’t know what's in people’s hearts. I don’t know how much of an antisemite she is. I know what she said and did."
But Hanif also has supporters in the Jewish community.
"It sometimes feels like a real double standard that the only Muslim woman in city elected office is asked if she supports Hamas," said Natania Malin Gazek, a volunteer with the group Jews for Shahana and board member at Jews for Racial and Economic Justice.
"Shahana is laser focused on her district. It's really hard not to see this constant suspicion as rooted in anti-Muslim bias," she said. "Her track record of supporting legislation that actually would combat antisemitism and hate is tremendous."
Malin Gazek pointed to a bill that Hanif introduced to launch an annual education campaign on antisemitism, and added that she has secured money for Holocaust lessons in schools, and worked with local synagogues to increase security around the high holidays.
Jews for Shahana has been hosting canvassing events and house parties in support of Hanif.
Spokoiny dismissed the group as a "fig leaf" not representative of the Jewish community. "Every time you show yourself with these people, it’s like showing the odd Black person who would wave a confederate flag," he said. "Every time you show yourself with them, you’re causing damage."
Malin Gazek countered: "We take offense to being painted with such a broad brush, that all Jewish people believe the same thing. There’s no litmus test for being Jewish."
Much of the bad blood stems from a meeting last year where Hanif chafed at demands from a group of Jewish leaders that she recognize Israel, condemn Hamas and speak out against graffiti in the neighborhood. (She has publicly condemned Hamas and the October 7 attacks, however.)
"We were completely taken aback by her response. She was resistant, dismissive, and downright combative with her own constituents," said Joni Kletter, a cofounder of Brooklyn Bridgebuilders.
Spokoiny said the group made those demands of Hanif not because of her religion, but because of her involvement in the protest movement. "We wouldn’t ask this of any random politician," he said. "If the city council person was focused on local issues, we wouldn’t be demanding anything that has to do with international affairs."
Hanif acknowledged some communications missteps, but said she stands by her pro-Palestinian views.
"There are times where I wish I had been more clear or provided additional context for my statements, and I take responsibility for those situations," she said. "I was proud to stand strong with constituents calling for a ceasefire and demanding peace—I would do so again in an instant. I have been clear and consistent that there is no room for antisemitism in the pro-Palestine movement."
Kornberg has distanced herself from some of the more extreme positions of the pro-Israel movement. She denounced the arrest and attempted deportation of recent Columbia graduate Mahmoud Khalil for his pro-Palestine activism, calling it "a clear abuse of power by Trump."
Brooklyn Bridgebuilders, on the other hand, tweeted in response to the uproar over Khalil’s detention, "Why are you focusing on protecting agitators who have targeted Jewish students? Bad take." The PAC has also urged Democrats to emulate rightwing City Councilmember Vickie Paladino in attacking the DSA.
Hanif has labeled Brooklyn Bridgebuilders "an inexperienced, immature fringe group."
On local issues, there’s not a huge ideological gulf between the two candidates' public positions. Hanif is a staunch progressive, while Kornberg brands herself a "pragmatic progressive." Hanif once embraced calls to defund the police, which Kornberg opposes. But they both vow to fight the Trump administration, want to preserve New York's sanctuary city status, and support congestion pricing, pedestrian safety measures, and bike lanes.
Hanif was also the lead sponsor of legislation passed this month to create walk-in appointments where people can apply for IDNYC cards, and of the bill that created mandatory citywide curbside composting.
Besides Park Slope, the district encompasses parts of Kensington, Borough Park, Cobble Hill, and Carroll Gardens. It has some of the highest voter turnout rates in the city. The seat was previously held by Brad Lander, now the city comptroller and a candidate for mayor (he has not endorsed anyone, his campaign said, although Lander and Hanif petitioned together last weekend) and before that by former Mayor Bill de Blasio.
Hanif has endorsements from the Working Families Party, New Kings Democrats, healthcare union 1199SEIU, New York Progressive Action Network, New York State Nurses Association, the Brooklyn Young Democrats, and Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso.