When IsraelAnalysis.com first reported an act of anti-Israel vandalism on the streets of White Plains, it pointed to the possibility of WESPAC—a long-standing left-wing activist group with a record of anti-Israel rhetoric—as being behind the hate-fueled attack. While no individual has been arrested or charged, the suspicion is not without reason. The question arises: why WESPAC?
Let’s start with timing. The graffiti appeared around 5:00 p.m. on the Ninth of Av, the somber Jewish fast day that mourns the destruction of the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem. WESPAC planned a “urgent vigil for the children of Gaza” at the same time the next day in Peekskill. That city lies further north in Westchester, while many of WESPAC’s most vocal “activists” live in southern Westchester, including White Plains. “Solidarity” for these comrades in southern Westchester may have brought them out on a sunny Sunday.
WESPAC ad for a vigil for Gaza in northern Westchester
Moreover, the vandalized site itself—a street decorated with American and Israeli flags—was an obvious magnet for anti-Israel agitators. What better canvas for those hoping to make a statement on a Jewish day of mourning than one visually celebrating the very state they protest?
But the context runs deeper.
WESPAC has long used the veneer of social justice to cloak its deeply anti-Israel agenda. In neighboring Hartsdale, the group confronted Jews filled with virulent anti-Israel rhetoric. And the current chair of WESPAC, Howard Horowitz, isn’t just a local—he’s a paradoxical figure leading the Israel Action Committee at Temple Israel of New Rochelle, even while aligning publicly with radical anti-Zionist groups like Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and IfNotNow.
Horowitz’s own writings are telling. He lashed out at Jewish residents of New Rochelle who had the temerity to run for school board seats, accusing them—and by extension the broader Jewish community—of racism against people of color. He has taken aim at “the vast majority [who] repeat the “I stand with Israel” declarations, disregarding the horrific facts on the ground” in Gaza, making the banner-lined street in White Plains a perfect target for his vitriol. He further believes that such pro-Israel proclamation “denigrates the Jewish tragedies” like the Ninth of Av, making the fast day an appropriate moment to attack Israel supporters.
Horowitz makes no bones about mocking Jewish “nationalism” as evil and “antithetical to Yiddishkeit,” even while he advocates for Arab nationalism. That’s his right, but it doesn’t put him or his group beyond the sphere of suspicion.
As reported by Lohud, the media site covering the lower Hudson Valley, ADL reported that in 2024, Westchester was unique among the suburbs of New York City, to have an increase in antisemitic incidents, a rise of 22% from 2023. Rockland, Nassau and Suffolk counties had declines of 11%, 36% and 26%, respectively. The disparity had much to do with anti-Israel groups including JVP, Palestinian Youth Movement and Democratic Socialist of America – all groups aligned and supported by WESPAC.
To be clear: no direct evidence has emerged tying WESPAC—or Horowitz—to this act of vandalism in White Plains. But in a county like Westchester, where anti-Israel rhetoric has become increasingly normalized in certain activist circles, and where groups like WESPAC operate openly with impunity, the suspicion is understandable.
This wasn’t random graffiti. It was a calculated message, timed for maximum symbolic effect. It struck at a street display of solidarity, and a people commemorating thousands of years of trauma.
And when neighbors ask: Who would do something like this?—it’s not hard to see why eyes turn toward the radical group operating, quite literally, just down the street.
WESPAC is a Westchester, New York-based “charity” that incites violence against Israel and its supporters. It is looking to recruit young Jews.
WESPAC helped fund the “People’s Conference For Palestine” in Detroit, MI on May 24-26, 2024. The event included full support for terrorism against Israel and the United States. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (supposedly sworn in to protect the US) was one of the featured speakers.
Lowlights of People’s Conference for Palestine May 24-26, 2024
Despite its claim that it is a peaceful movement, WESPAC solicited donations for the event. It funds Palestinian Youth Movement, which had several speakers calling for the destruction of Israel including Celine Qussiny, Mohammed Nabulsi, Hana Masri, Nadya Tannous, Lylla Younes and Yara Shoufani with chants “fight until victory”, “strike at the heart of Empire (the United States)” and “it is either victory or death.”
Nabulsi said (4:19) “I believe our fundamental goal is to generate political and social crisis within the American political class.” It seems that such sentiment includes within the Jewish community.
WESPAC is advertising for a new “Jewish school” which hopes “to reach as wide an audience as possible.” It says that the “program is very inclusive and accepting of everyone” and is generally marketed as free of affiliation of organized synagogues and “founded on social justice activism and awareness.”
It does not share how it intends to instill anti-Israel beliefs into young Jewish minds.
Pro-Nazi members of various singing and gymnastic societies salute a procession of flags at White Plains Conference Center in the 1930s (photo: AP)
The Nazis didn’t give Jews any way out of their genocidal aims but Hamas’s Willing Executioners are giving passes to Jews who reject the Jewish State and join their jihad.
Antisemitic pro-terror groups are seeking to drive a wedge within the Jewish community with a massive disinformation campaign to adults AND CHILDREN. Their game is a long one, hoping to destroy American support for Israel and Israel itself before Israel reaches its 100th birthday.
Rep. Jamaal Bowman has saddled up with some of the most violent anti-Israel Jew-haters in his New York district. They are now actively coming for Jews.
At the launch of Bowman’s 2024 congressional campaign, he featured Nada Khader who said before a cheering Bowman that Jews in Israel will only be safe when Palestinian Arabs “return to our homeland!” Until then, they can expect more October 7 massacres.
Nada Khader of WESPAC threatening Jews with more attacks if Palestinians do not get to move into Israel, with Rep. Jamaal Bowman cheering “Free Palestine”
Khader has taken her screed directly to Jewish schools.
On March 10, 2024, Khader and about twenty fellow anti-Israel agitators came to the Jewish Leffell School, where Jews gathered to discuss buying homes in Israel.
This seemed like an ideal time and location for Bowman’s supporters to tell Jews that they should be attacked.
Jihadist extremists carry banners in front of a Jewish Day School in Westchester County, NY on March 10, 2024
Khader and friends carried signs to “end the 75 year occupation”, meaning to destroy the Jewish State, as well as to “end Western complicity in Zionism” to rip any protections for Jews, so Muslim extremists can seek “Palestinian Liberation by any means necessary.”
Pro-Palestinian extremists are very clear what “any means necessary” means – more October 7 massacres with raping, beheadings and burning families alive.
NYC – these vile stickers are being spotted all around Union Square.
Khader’s charity, WESPAC, is somehow a tax-exempt entity despite calls for violence. It operates openly in the heart of Westchester County, home to 150,000 Jews.
Nada Khader with allies calling for the rape and slaughter of Jews in front of a Jewish day school on March 10, 2024
Imagine the danger to Westchester’s Jews if Jamaal Bowman prevails in the June 25th Democratic primary.
Rep. Jamaal Bowman and Rep. Rashida Tlaib shout “Free Palestine” before crowd after the October 7 massacre and mass rape of Israelis by Palestinian Arabs
Rep. Jamaal Bowman, the two term far-left extremist now serving New York’s 16th Congressional District touts himself as pushing for “good trouble.” As he launched his reelection campaign this week, he made very clear that it means war with supporters of Israel.
Bowman yelled to his crowd about the pro-Israel lobbying group that “AIPAC is one of the most powerful lobbies in America. Well you know what we have got to say to AIPAC? Bring it on, y’all. AIPAC, bring it on, y’all! We are not scared of none of that! I’m from the streets of New York…. I was a middle school principal. Taught kids in the South Bronx. Hey y’all, this is New York.AIPAC, we’re ready for all of that. If you wanna support a corporate career corrupt pay-to-play politician, you go ahead and do that…. Our movement is much more powerful than they can even imagine!“
The reelection event included a handful of other speakers including Nada Khader, Executive Director of the WESPAC Foundation, a highly controversial organization. The Anti Defamation League has flagged WESPAC for funding a range of antisemitic and anti-Israel organizations including the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, Palestinian Youth Movement, US Palestinian Community Network, and Within Our Lifetime. Those organizations have become infamous for many violent incidents since the October 7 Hamas massacres.
Immediately after the October 7 atrocities, USPCN issued a statement which called the brutal massacre “self-defense operations,” and that “today’s attacks from the Palestinian Resistance should be understood as a legitimate response to unending violence from Israel’s extreme right-wing, racist, white supremacist, zionist government and settler movement.” According to ADL, “At a USPCN rally on October 18, a protester held a sign with paraglider imagery, reading, ‘We will redeem you, oh Palestine.’ Paraglider imagery has been popular because some of the Hamas terrorists used paragliders to invade Israel. At the same rally, another prominent sign was seen reading ‘Zionism racism,’ with an image of blood and dollar bills in the shape of a snake.”
ADL adds that “Within Our Lifetime-United for Palestine (WOL) is a radical New York-based anti-Israel organization led by Nerdeen Kiswani that routinely expresses support for violence against Israel. Kiswani has called for all “Zionists” to be vilified and expelled from community spaces, and both she and WOL explicitly call for the complete eradication of Israel, including for Israel to be “wiped off the map.” After the October 7 massacre, WOL posted “We must defend the Palestinian right to resist zionist [sic] settler violence and support Palestinian resistance in all its forms. By any means necessary. With no exceptions and no fine print.”
Palestinian Youth Movement has long plastered posters of a Palestinian takeover of Israel through the blood of “martyrs.” At a protest after the October 7 slaughter, one member of PYM suggested that the Israel-Hamas war will come to New York, “We want to show the world that when Palestine rises up in resistance, the diaspora rises with it.”
Members of WESPAC-backed PYM affix billboards of “Glory to Our Martyrs” poster covering the entirety of Israel in New York.
The theme of threatening Jews in Israel and the diaspora echoed at the Bowman event.
Khader said to a roaring crowd and an applauding Bowman (29:10) “You [Israeli Jews] get safety when Palestinians are free. You get safety when Palestinians have equality. You get safety when Palestinians have self-determination. And we have the right of return to our homeland!” In other words, Hamas’s actions in Israel on October 7 were justified because even though Gazans have self-determination, they still live in Gaza, and as long as they don’t get to move into Israeli towns where grandparents lived decades ago, they will continue to hunt down, rape, burn and brutalize Jews.
Nada Khader of WESPAC threatening Jews with more attacks if Palestinians do not get to move into Israel, with Rep. Jamaal Bowman cheering “Free Palestine”
This event was not an outlier.
Just a few nights earlier, Bowman spoke at a rally with noted anti-Zionist Norman Finkelstein who had said “Israel has no legal right to use any kind of force in Gaza — under any circumstances.” Bowman said he watched Finkelstein all of the time on YouTube and was “a bit starstruck” to be with him.
While Bowman continues to rail against AIPAC and aligns himself with a host of people who believe that all Zionists should be subject to attack, he claims that he’s for love and peace in a weak attempt to shield him from charges of antisemitism. He contemporaneously falsely claims that AIPAC is racist and targets people of color, as the best defensive is a good offense. Fellow squad member Alexandria Ocasio Cortes echoes her socialist comrade and said that AIPAC is “more racist and bigoted PACs in Congress as well, who disproportionately target members of color.” It’s a complete lie and attempt to divert attention from an extremist member of congress who was censured in a bipartisan vote.
The truth is that AIPAC backs many people of color including Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY15) in the neighboring district and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY8). Many others include Gabe Amo (D-RI1), Nanette Barragán (D-CA44), Joyce Beatty (D-OH3) and Shontel Brown (D-OH11) to name a few.
Bowman’s anti-Israel vitriol and associations have become so aggressive that even far left-wing group J Street has pulled its endorsement of him after saying it would not do so a few weeks ago.
Bowman’s rants have made the Jewish constituents fearful. Just hours after his challenge to brawl with AIPAC, someone defaced two Jewish stores in Scarsdale, including an ice cream store frequented by teenagers. Latimer showed up to a rally at the store a few hours later. He came to the Westchester Jewish Council dinner a few days later, standing before a diverse multi-racial, multi-ethnic, multi-religious assembly of local politicians and told the audience over and again “you are not alone.”
County Executive George Latimer before a diverse group of politicians at the Westchester Jewish Council dinner, January 2024 (photo: First One Through)
Bowman did not attend the rally confronting the vandalism. He did not attend the WJC dinner.
New York’s Congressional District 16 has many Jews and Israel supporters who are angry and frightened by Bowman’s bellicosity. There are dozens of reasons and tens of thousands of people who want Bowman out of congress and hope to achieve that in the 2024 Democratic primary by backing George Latimer.
In the Westchester County, New York capital of White Plains, a front for Palestinian terrorism collects funds and promotes a jihad against American Jews and the Jewish state.
WESPAC Foundation describes itself as the “leading force for progressive social change in Westchester County, New York, since 1974. We have been educating, agitating and organizing for a more just and peaceful world, an end to militarism and racism and a more fair economy.”
Its version of “progressive social change” and “a more just and peaceful world” is attacking Jews and the destruction of Israel.
With donations to WESPAC, people affix posters in public spaces of Palestinian Arabs killed in confrontations with Israeli forces with a statement “Glory to our martyrs” over a map of all of Israel. PYM states “We used creative protest to honor our martyrs and uplift their legacies.”
Palestinian Youth Movement
The Palestinian Youth Movement gets funding from WESPAC. Its support for violent jihad can be found throughout its website and statements.
Some statements are subtle, like its recap of 2022 actions in which the group “commemorate[d] our martyrs, condemn[ed] Zionist violence, and affirm[ed] our peoples’ right to resist,” being unclear as to whether it supports terrorism.
The hatred for Jews is clear. PYM strongly supports the “Mapping Project out of Boston” which has been roundly condemned as horrifically antisemitic in laying out the various synagogues and Jewish institutions throughout Massachusetts. The Boston Globe printed that the “BDS-promoted mapping project is anti-Semitic and must be condemned” and that the “targeting of Jewish organizations and individuals harks back to the virulent conspiracy theories of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.”
Reaction to Hamas’s October 7 Massacre
After the gruesome butchery committed by the Palestinian political-terrorist group Hamas of over 1,400 people in Israel and abduction of over 200, WESPAC released a statement “The attack from Gaza has a context. It follows months and years and decades of constant violence, pogroms, expulsions and other manifestations of apartheid inflicted on Palestinians in the West Bank and Jerusalem.”
WESPAC defended Hamas’s grotesque terrorism of beheadings, rapes and burning people alive.
It continued “we refuse to be labeled as anti-Semitic for opposing Israel’s apartheid policies of supremacy and separation. The only solution, as it has always been, is to bring an end of apartheid, occupation, and siege, and promote a future based on justice, equality and human dignity for all. We call for a change from unconditional US support for Israel to equitable support for both Palestinians and Israelis in their struggle for peace with justice.”
On Your Dime
According to the ADL, “WESPAC uses its tax-exempt status as an NGO to provide financial support to groups and initiatives that actively denigrate, disparage and attempt to ostracize pro-Israel and Jewish communities, at times using blatant antisemitic language. As a fiscal sponsor, WESPAC receives and administers donations on behalf of groups such as National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP). WESPAC then keeps a percentage of the donation and gives the rest to the groups/projects that it fiscally sponsors. Groups the organization fiscally sponsors that engage in antisemitic anti-Israel activity are Adalah NY, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, Palestinian Youth Movement, US Palestinian Community Network, and Within Our Lifetime. WESPAC occasionally will sponsor and participate in Israel Apartheid Weeks.“
The State of New York, home to roughly 2.2 million Jews, is also home to a vile group which is “honor[ing] our martyrs and uplift[ing] their legacies” of Hamas butchers who slaughtered innocent people. Its headquarters is in the NY-16 congressional district, which has the eighth most Jews of any district in the country, headed by Congressman Jamaal Bowman, who has repeatedly demonized Israel.
That is the state of diaspora Jews today. Watching the architects of a jihadi inferno operate openly under cover of democracy.
ACTION ITEM
Write NY Governor Kathy Hochul “Investigate the incitement to terror of WESPAC which funnels money to antisemitic groups”
First One Through 