This past July 20, over five hundred protesters gathered in Manhattan’s Herald Square, holding signs demanding an end to Israeli apartheid and settler violence. Democratic socialist New York State Assembly member Zohran Mamdani addressed the crowd, saying:

When I grew up in this city, I grew up hearing the term “progressive except Palestine.” I grew up hearing that it was normal to hold an inconsistency only when it applied to Palestinians. I saw the politicians that I admired speak of universal rights and then draw the line right when it came to Palestinians. I was told that was simply how it is, that is how it has been, and it is how it will be.

The rally was in support of the Not on Our Dime!: Ending New York Funding of Israeli Settler Violence Act. The legislation, put forward by Mamdani in the State Assembly along with counterpart legislation by socialist Jabari Brisport in the State Senate, would end the nonprofit status of New York–based organizations that fund Israeli settlements. Because they are nonprofits, millions of dollars in donations they receive every year are left untaxed — meaning that public money that should be going to schools, health care, and investing in a green future is instead subsidizing the violent expansion of Israel’s illegal settlements.