A Brooklyn Democratic politician and housing activist with a history of pushing century-old antisemitic conspiracy theories blamed the property dispute that launched her to prominence on “Zionists” in a recent interview with an Egyptian social media personality.

The comments came from Carmella Charrington, who was elected in June to the unpaid but important role of Democratic district leader, a position that helps pick the party’s influential chairperson and judicial nominees — and who last fall shared on Instagram a video promoting Henry Ford’s notorious 1920s pamphlet series The International Jew. 

Charrington gained fame amid a legal fight for control of her family’s brownstone home in the fast-gentrifying Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, which she has labeled a case of deed theft but which New York state Attorney General Letitia James’ office determined was simply an inheritance dispute.

Sitting down with Egyptian podcaster Rahma Zein, Charrington raged against the Jewish investors who had acquired the building and suggested a vague but insidious link to the Jewish state.

“They’re Zionists that basically did this. Same thing that they’re doing in the West Bank, it’s the same thing. There’s a connection,” the politician said, name-dropping Joseph and Elliot Ambalo and Daniel Gazal, who acquired stakes in the property from a conservator for Charrington’s elderly father. “But they are connected, the same people that’s doing it in the West Bank. I didn’t believe it at first. I just was like, who? Like, they’re like, it’s the people in Brooklyn, not just anything like in the U.S. It’s the connection straight to Brooklyn. And then they’re so bold, they come here and do it and show it.”

Charrington did not say what the exact “connection” was in the interview, which Zein posted last week to her Instagram and YouTube channels, and did not respond to calls and text messages for this story. Publicly posted biographies indicate that Gazal was born in Israel, but that the Ambalo brothers are natives of New York.

Charrington shared a still from the interview on her own Instagram account, set to the song “Jamaica Love” by the artist Busy Signal.

“It must stop displacement for all!!!!#dad #brooklyn #nyc #lovers #ceo,” she wrote in the caption.

The fight over Charrington’s home earned her the attention of the most prominent members of the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America — including Councilman Chi Osse, who was arrested protesting in her defense at the property, and the incident inspired Mayor Zohran Mamdani to establish a new office of deed theft prevention. Two other DSA members, State Sen. Jabari Brisport and Assembly candidate Eon Huntley, lent her bid to become district leader ballot access and campaign support. 

Osse, Brisport and Huntley all denounced Charrington’s sharing of the International Jew Instagram video last November, which blamed Jewish people for everything from slavery to gay rights to the sale of alcohol and drugs. Despite yelling “get your rabbi” repeatedly at a JI reporter over the phone and railing against the house’s Jewish buyers and against the Jewish judge who sent her to Rikers Island on a contempt of court charge, Charrington apologized for the post in a subsequent interview with The New York Times.

Brisport and Huntley did not respond to requests for comment, and have not called for Charrington to renounce her party post. The Brooklyn Democratic Party is in the midst of a power struggle, as left-leaning forces seek to oust the present centrist leader, Assemblywoman Rodneyse Bichotte.

Bichotte’s key rival, activist Julio Peña, ran on a slate with Charrington. Peña did not respond to questions about whether he considered Charrington’s views disqualifying, or whether he would accept her support to become chairman. 

Days after the original JI story ran, the New York City Sheriff’s Department took custody of Charrington’s father, who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease, and returned him to Georgia, where a court had made him a ward of the state.