Two political activists closely affiliated with Omar Fateh, a far-left Minnesota state senator who is now running for mayor of Minneapolis, have expressed a range of extreme views on the Hamas terror attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, endorsing the violence as a justified act of resistance and accusing Israel of initiating the war in Gaza, among other inflammatory comments.

Their rhetoric could fuel concerns among local Jewish leaders who sounded alarms about Fateh’s close alliances with anti-Israel activists after he won the state Democratic Party endorsement last month over Jacob Frey, the incumbent seeking a third and final term. Fateh, a 35-year-old democratic socialist whose campaign has recently drawn comparisons to New York City Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani, has likewise been a staunch critic of Israel, calling its conduct in Gaza a genocide and pushing for a ceasefire 10 days after Hamas’ attack.

In a mayoral candidate questionnaire solicited by the Twin Cities chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America — which endorsed his bid after facing widespread criticism over its response to the Oct. 7 attack — Fateh also backed the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement targeting Israel, according to portions of the form reviewed by Jewish Insider. 

He additionally pledged, without explanation, to “refrain from any and all affiliation” with what the DSA questionnaire dismissed as “Zionist lobby groups,” citing AIPAC, J Street, Christians United for Israel and, most notably, the Jewish Community Relations Council, a nonpartisan organization that typically engages with a diverse group of elected officials in both parties. The local JCRC — which represents the Jewish community to Minneapolis government officials — has voiced reservations about its ability to interact with Fateh if he is elected, in light of his statements on Israel.

But some of Fateh’s campaign staffers have gone significantly further than the state legislator, raising questions over his tolerance for incendiary language on a sensitive issue that has stoked growing internal tensions in the state party and could possibly inflect an increasingly bitter mayoral race in the lead-up to November.

In a series of now-deleted social media posts, for instance, Fateh’s communications manager, Anya Smith-Kooiman stated that Israel “does not have a ‘right’ to exist” and “must be dismantled,” while amplifying comments dismissing widespread reports of sexual violence on Oct. 7 as “propaganda” and hailing the attacks as a form of “resistance” that succeeded where the peace process had failed.

Elsewhere, Smith-Kooiman, who joined Fateh’s campaign in December, according to her LinkedIn page, declared a month after the Oct. 7 attacks that she did “not give a flying f**k about Hamas,” claiming “the root of the problem is a colonial government segregating, ethnically cleaning, murdering Palestinians, stealing their land with impunity and not expecting a resistance group to violently fight back.”

“Colonial and oppressive regimes love to call everyone but themselves a terrorist,” she continued in her November 2023 post to X, now removed from her profile. “Israeli terrorism created Hamas and the cycle will go on and on until Israel, Britain and the U.S. are held accountable for their violence and thievery. Let’s address root causes: imperialism.”

More recently, Smith-Kooiman, in a June social media post, advocated for the release of what she called “all Palestinian hostages,” equating prisoners held in Israel with the captives who were kidnapped by Hamas on Oct. 7.

In addition to Smith-Kooiman, another activist with ties to Fateh’s mayoral bid, David Gilbert-Pederson, has unreservedly praised the Oct. 7 attack, which he has characterized as a heroic feat of defiance against “imperial domination.”

Speaking on a panel discussion about “connecting movements for collective liberation” in December 2023, Gilbert-Pederson — who has been listed as a Fateh campaign staffer in filings — celebrated “what happened collectively for the people of Palestine on Oct. 7,” saying it was not his place to cast judgment on the violence. 

“We as Americans, people who live in the imperial core, our job is to stand in unconditional solidarity with those resisting oppression,” Gilbert-Pederson, a close ally of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), explained in his panel remarks. “Unconditional solidarity does not mean that we get to say, ‘Oh, this tactic you did, we don’t really like that,’ or, ‘We agree with you, but I think that some of your methods are too extreme.’ That’s not what unconditional solidarity means.”

“We live in the core of the empire,” he said, “so it is our job to demand that our government divest from Israel, divest from the colonial project, and start to free the U.S. as well.”

Broadly summarizing his approach, he argued that “all resistance to that kind of imperial domination is justified.”

Fateh’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday about Gilbert-Pederson and Smith-Kooiman, both of whom have previously faced some scrutiny for their rhetoric on Israel and Oct. 7, or his answers to the DSA’s questionnaire.

For his part, Frey, a Jewish Democrat, has been outspoken against rising antisemitism in the wake of Hamas’ attacks. The mayor, 44, has clashed with the City Council over anti-Israel resolutions he has dismissed as one-sided, even as he has condemned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government’s handling of the ongoing war in Gaza.

In recent years, Jewish and pro-Israel activists in New York City have been successful in defending favored incumbents while boosting candidates in open-seat local races. But they have struggled to go on the offensive against far-left Israel critics on the City Council aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America, which has gained prominence in some districts.

Now, however, some Jewish community activists and pro-Israel strategists are expressing optimism that a competitive City Council election in southern Brooklyn could be their best pick-up opportunity in next week’s citywide primaries, delivering a possible upset that has so far proved elusive at the local level.

In one of the city’s most hotly contested local races, Alexa Avilés, a two-term councilmember backed by the DSA, is facing a formidable challenge from Ling Ye, a moderate former congressional staffer making her first bid for elective office with a focus largely on public safety.

The race is playing out in a redrawn district that now includes more moderate constituents in Dyker Heights who are likely less receptive to reelecting a socialist, strategists say, fueling hopes among allies of Ye eager to pick off an incumbent whose hostility to Israel while in office has rankled Jewish leaders.

Ye, who immigrated to the United States from China in her early teens, is also depending on the sizable population of Chinese American voters who live in the ethnically diverse district — which covers such progressive pockets as Red Hook, winds down through a heavily Latino section of Sunset Park and terminates around Bensonhurst and Dyker Heights in southwestern Brooklyn.

“She is hyper focused on the issues impacting the community she grew up in and served through her many roles in government,” Haley Scott, a spokesperson for Ye, told JI. “She’s fighting to make south Brooklyn safer and more affordable, and to make sure every community in this district is being heard and represented in City Hall.”

One political consultant supportive of Ye said that he had seen recent polling showing Avilés with an eight-point lead over her opponent, but cautioned the district is difficult to accurately survey because the electorate is so diverse and voters speak several different languages.

“There are a bunch of voting pockets, between the Asian population and working-class moderate white voters, that could break toward Ye,” the consultant, who spoke on condition of anonymity to address the race, told Jewish Insider this week.

Haley Scott, a spokesperson for Ye, also projected confidence ahead of Tuesday’s primary, saying the first-time candidate “is running a campaign to win” and built “overwhelming grassroots support and an aggressive turnout operation to make sure everyone who can vote exercises that right.”

“She is hyper focused on the issues impacting the community she grew up in and served through her many roles in government,” Scott told JI. “She’s fighting to make south Brooklyn safer and more affordable, and to make sure every community in this district is being heard and represented in City Hall.”

Ye, who most recently was a staffer for Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY), is backed by a pro-Israel super PAC as well as a group with ties to the real estate industry that has invested in attack ads targeting Avilés over past calls to defund the police, among other issues.

Like some other candidates who have previously endorsed such efforts — which have more recently become a political liability — Avilés has softened her rhetoric on public safety issues as she faces scrutiny over her positions while seeking reelection to a third term in the changed district.

As recently as last August, for instance, Avilés had explicitly advocated for “defunding the NYPD” in a platform section on her campaign site, according to archived screenshots on the Wayback Machine. But her current platform features no such language, and even acknowledges that a “police presence” coupled with public services like “better street lighting” have helped constituents “feel safe” in their communities. 

Rather than calling for a wholesale divestment from law enforcement, Avilés’ platform now pushes for increased police accountability while arguing that officers are unfit to respond to mental health calls, among other things.

Her campaign did not return a request for comment from JI on Thursday.

The Puerto Rican-born councilwoman, who chairs the Committee on Immigration, has otherwise been emphasizing constituent services, citing her efforts to protect residents from federal agents conducting what she has called “unlawful” raids and arrests as President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown targets New York City.

For her part, Ye has countered that Avilés’ tenure has been more defined by what she characterizes as performative gestures such as voting against the city budget, while suggesting that her vociferous support for defunding the police has damaged relations with law enforcement at the expense of the community’s immediate needs. Ye has called for “strengthening relationships between local police precincts and the neighborhoods they serve” amid local concerns over violent crime, among other policies that she casts as practical solutions better aligned with the district.

Ye, who has drawn donations from Jewish and pro-Israel donors, is supportive of Israel but has stressed that the City Council is not an appropriate venue for litigating foreign policy and has sought to focus on local issues throughout the race, according to her campaign. The district is home to just a small number of Jewish voters, according to experts, even as it includes some parts of Borough Park, a Hasidic enclave.

“New York’s AIPAC is spending big against me,” Avilés said during her speech on Saturday before a packed audience at Terminal 5, referring to Solidarity PAC, a local pro-Israel advocacy group supporting Ye that has no formal ties to the Washington-based federal lobbying organization. “Because I’ve stood up over and over to demand a ceasefire in Gaza,” she added defiantly to cheers from the crowd. “We want to end the genocide and we want a free Palestine!” 

Still, Israel’s ongoing wars have fueled tension in the district. Pro-Palestinian activists have heckled Ye on the campaign trail, according to video seen by JI, accusing her of supporting “genocide” and taking “blood money” from Israel, a false claim that echoes antisemitic tropes about Jewish control of American politics. Ye has also faced xenophobic rhetoric amid the race, as one of her public campaign posters was defaced with graffiti labeling her a “Zionist” as well an affiliate of the “CCP,” or the Chinese Communist Party, a photo recently shared with JI shows.

Even as Avilés has somewhat tempered her rhetoric on law enforcement, she has continued to speak out stridently in opposition to Israel, most recently at a campaign rally in Manhattan for Zohran Mamdani, a far-left state assemblyman from Queens polling in second place in the Democratic mayoral primary on Tuesday. 

“New York’s AIPAC is spending big against me,” Avilés said during her speech on Saturday before a packed audience at Terminal 5, referring to Solidarity PAC, a local pro-Israel advocacy group supporting Ye that has no formal ties to the Washington-based federal lobbying organization. “Because I’ve stood up over and over to demand a ceasefire in Gaza,” she added defiantly to cheers from the crowd. “We want to end the genocide and we want a free Palestine!” 

In keeping with the DSA, which drew widespread backlash for promoting a Manhattan rally at which attendees were seen celebrating Hamas shortly after the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, Avilés backs the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions moment targeting Israel and has faced scrutiny for being among a handful of City Council members who abstained from voting in favor of a City Council resolution to establish an annual “End Jewish Hatred Day.”

Sara Forman, who leads Solidarity PAC, criticized Avilés in a statement to JI as “a DSA ideologue” who during her time in office has “sidelined” key issues such as affordable housing “in favor of empty promises, an obsession with foreign policy and political posturing.”

Solidarity PAC, Forman said, “proudly supports Ling Ye, who has called Brooklyn’s 38th District home since immigrating to the United States at 14, as someone who understands the real and pressing needs of the community.”

As she seeks to fend off her primary challenger, Aviles’ allies have raised some concerns about the race, even as she has won a range of high-profile endorsements from such progressive leaders as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and the Working Families Party. In a recent Zoom discussion about the “Israel lobby,” Yuh-Line Niou, a former far-left state assemblywoman who lost a tight congressional contest in 2022, warned that Avilés is running in “a very tough race” and urged viewers to support her campaign.

“There are people who are Asian voters who will literally see an Asian name on the ballot and be willing to vote for them,” suggested Niou, who is Taiwanese American.

Despite some unease among supporters of Avilés, the race has largely flown under the radar and has been overshadowed by a separate City Council race in Brooklyn where Shahana Hanif, the DSA-aligned incumbent, has drawn backlash from Jewish voters over her strident criticism of Israel. 

“It’s going to be the closest of the DSA races,” said one Jewish leader, speaking anonymously to discuss the primary. “But Alexa still wins,” he predicted, while speculating that Mamdani’s “coattails” in the district “will help.”

In her primary, Hanif is defending her seat against Maya Kornberg, a pro-Israel Jewish Democrat also backed by Solidarity PAC who, like Ye, has accused her opponent of failing to provide solid constituent services while advocating for policies like defunding the police that have not helped the district.

But while the race has drawn national attention as well as spending from outside groups backing both candidates, some strategists and Jewish leaders who are eager to see Kornberg win expressed skepticism she will ultimately unseat Hanif — owing largely to the ideological makeup of the district that includes deeply progressive Park Slope. 

Some Jewish community activists are also cautious about Ye’s race further south. “It’s going to be the closest of the DSA races,” said one Jewish leader, speaking anonymously to discuss the primary. “But Alexa still wins,” he predicted, while speculating that Mamdani’s “coattails” in the district “will help.”

Still, others following the race are holding out hope that Avilés’ new district lines will favor a moderate Democrat like Ye, who has argued the community “doesn’t need another professional protester” in City Hall.

“There’s a really good chance for a pick-up here,” said another Jewish community activist who has tracked the race.