When Zohran Mamdani won the mayoral race of New York City, many believed his election would transform not just municipal policy but how the city confronts injustice, at home and abroad. Many were inspired when, as an assemblyman in May 2023 at the CUNY School of Law, Mamdani introduced the “Not On Our Dime!: Ending New York Funding of Israeli Settler Violence Act” (NOOD Act), a bill that would have prohibited New York‑registered nonprofits from using tax‑exempt status to fund Israeli settlement expansion and other violations of international law. But despite his pre‑mayoral record and the sustained grassroots pressure, Mamdani’s actions since taking office have disappointed and not matched the urgency of the moment.
New York City is a national hub for Zionist charity infrastructure, with major nonprofits headquartered here and hundreds of millions in tax‑deductible funds raised annually by New York‑registered charities that support Israeli settlement activity, making the city a primary conduit for financial flows that sustain displacement and occupation. However, when activists recently protested a real estate event in Queens that they said was marketing settlement land, Mamdani publicly condemned the chants of protestors, saying “support of a terrorist organization has no place in our city,” referring to Hamas, while failing to address the reason they were protesting in the first place. Later, when asked if he had condemned the illegal land sales that recruit settlers to move to the West Bank, Mamdani clarified his opposition to the sale of occupied land, but failed to similarly issue a forceful statement against the settlement sales event.
While some of Mamdani’s supporters say it’s too early to criticize him for failing to take decisive action against New York City’s role in Israeli settlement activity across the West Bank and East Jerusalem, there are, in fact, several very concrete and simple actions he can take. And for Palestinians on the ground, action cannot come soon enough as settlements are rapidly expanding and intensifying today through escalating violence and displacing families off of their land.
Stopping Israeli settlement expansion now
Israeli settlement policy continues to breach international law, with plans to construct 20,000 housing units in East Jerusalem and 10,300 units in the West Bank, along with 49 newly established outposts. This is on top of an unprecedented number of illegal settler outposts that have been built in the West Bank since 2023. These figures are not abstract. In my own village, Beit Iksa, settlement expansion has led to the establishment of a new permit regime since September 2025 that amounts to de facto annexation. Residents are now required to obtain magnetic ID cards and special permits just to access their own homes. This reality illustrates exactly why organizers in New York have pushed to create a legal accountability framework like the Not On Our Dime Act (NOOD).
Organizers in Palestine and across the U.S. have long campaigned against the flow of money from U.S. nonprofits into settler organizations and projects. Years before Mamdani’s bill, community actions targeted nonprofit fiscal sponsors, and other mechanisms through which money and legitimacy are funneled into settlement‑linked activities, including direct campaigns demanding the NY Attorney General revoke 501(c)(3) status for groups linked to settler causes.
In recent years, community campaigns have exposed and interrupted events in New York that publicly advertise and market West Bank land, using direct action and legal filings to spotlight the issue and challenge permits and venues promoting such sales.
These campaigns have demanded that New York’s legal regime can and should be used to challenge settler funding and real estate marketing directly, and now Mamdani is in a position to do so. New York already has multiple overlapping legal avenues that could ensure the city acts against illegal settlement activity, tools the mayor could activate without passing new laws.
Here are four concrete actions Zohran Mamdani can take as mayor to challenge the funding pipeline to Israeli settlements in New York City:
1. Attorney General Enforcement of Nonprofit Law
The NY Attorney General can investigate nonprofits that mislead donors, operate outside their charitable purpose, or fund illegal activity, and can revoke registration, impose fines, or seek injunctions under Executive Law § 63(12) and the Not-for-Profit Corporation Law. While this authority rests with the state, the mayor can refer cases, coordinate with the AG, and ensure city contracts do not support these organizations.
2. Consumer Protection and Advertising Law
Deceptive business practices, like marketing property without disclosing legal or title risks, are prohibited under NYC Administrative Code § 20-700. The Department of Consumer and Worker Protection can investigate and act. As mayor, Mamdani could direct enforcement or issue public advisories warning New Yorkers of these risks.
3. Zoning and Permit Enforcement
The NYC Zoning Resolution and Administrative Code Title 28 allow city regulators to shut down or fine unpermitted real estate events within the city. Mamdani oversees the responsible agencies and could have prevented city spaces from being used to promote illegal settlement land sales.
4. Public Advisories and Consumer Warnings
The Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP) can issue public alerts under NYC Charter Chapter 64 about legal, financial, and political risks of buying land in occupied territory. The mayor could use these advisories to educate the public and signal the city’s opposition.
None of these tools requires new laws. They already exist. What’s missing is political will, and as mayor, Mamdani can make them happen.
Inaction is complicity
The sale of land tied to illegal settlements and the flow of U.S. tax-exempt dollars into groups that enable this expansion are not abstract harms, they directly fuel the dispossession, violence, and deaths of Palestinians. Mamdani has the power to challenge and stop this but so far has not exercised it.
Unfortunately, activists are afraid this might be a broader pattern. Mamdani was elected on the power of a movement energized by his rhetoric on Palestine prior to and during the campaign, but we have seen him back away from other positions he took before the election. For example, he once publicly criticized the Cornell Tech–Technion partnership due to Technion’s ties to Israeli military research, but later stated he did not view the partnership as violating law or city policy in his capacity as mayor.
New York City has the legal tools to act today, and acting is not a favor, it is a minimum standard of justice and accountability. Choosing silence or symbolic gestures while Palestinians are killed, homes are seized, and communities are erased is not a neutral position, it is complicity. Mayor Mamdani can intervene immediately. If he truly believes in justice, enforcement is not optional, it is the first act of material solidarity beyond rhetoric.
