New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) on Tuesday dismissed the suggestion that the left has played any role in the rise of anti-Semitism, calling the issue a distinctly “right-wing movement.”
“I think the ideological movement that is anti-Semitic is the right-wing movement,” the 2020 presidential candidate said during a press conference about the rise in hate crimes in the city, according to the New York Post.
{mosads}“I want to be very, very clear, the violent threat, the threat that is ideological, is very much from the right,” he added.
De Blasio also rejected the notion that there has been any rising anti-Semitism on the left with regard to the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement known as BDS, according to the newspaper.
City council members from both parties took issue with de Blasio’s remarks.
Councilman Chaim Deutsch, a Brooklyn Democrat, told the New York Post, “I have not seen any white supremacists coming in here committing these hate crimes.”
Councilman Joseph Borrelli (R) said de Blasio’s comments make no sense based on where anti-Semitic incidents have occurred, “unless you count central Brooklyn as the home of a vast right-wing conspiracy.”
New York City Police Department data show hate crimes have increased by 64 percent since 2018; 60 percent of those were motivated by anti-Semitism, the mayor’s office said Tuesday.
The city plans to open an office aimed at preventing hate crimes this summer, months ahead of schedule.