Outgoing New York City mayor Eric Adams signs anti-BDS law

With just three weeks left in office, New York City's outgoing mayor, Eric Adams, signed two executive orders on Wednesday that would bar anti-Israel boycotts in municipal spaces, and also potentially prevent protests outside synagogues - regardless of the nature of the event being held inside. 

The Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which is two decades old, has long called on civil society to use the non-violent method to hold Israel accountable for its illegal military occupation of Palestinian land, apartheid practices using checkpoints and segregation, and now its genocide in Gaza. 

At least 38 states in the US have enacted anti-BDS laws to prevent anyone from taking on a contract with the state government while refusing to engage with Israeli companies, or even privately encouraging a boycott of Israeli goods and services.

New York State already has an anti-BDS law. By signing one for New York City, Adams has effectively cornered mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, a longtime advocate of BDS, to either support the text or overturn it, both of which would likely elicit outrage. 

New York City has the largest number of Jews outside of Israel, numbering about one million. There are nearly as many Muslims in the city, though Mamdani's win hinged on progressives of all stripes banding together to support him. 

"Executive Order 60 makes it clear: BDS has no place in our city. The movement is antisemitic in nature and discriminatory in practice. NYC contracts and pensions must serve the public good. Discrimination is illegal. Antisemitism is abhorrent," Adams wrote on his X account on Wednesday.

In a statement, the mayor's office said that $300m of a total of $300b worth of investments in global marketplace securities for city workers and retirees is allocated to Israeli bonds and assets. 

There are five independent pension systems in New York City, and 750,000 people who benefit from them.

Investment decisions, the executive order says, must be based solely on furthering the financial interests of the pension systems and not on discriminating against Israeli citizens.

No other foreign country is protected from US boycotts. 

"New York City not only has a strong bond with the State of Israel because of our commitment to protecting a Jewish homeland, but also because it has always been a sound financial investment, and our financial decisions should continue to reflect that truth," Adams said in a written statement.

Banning protests

The second executive order signed by Adams would explore prohibiting protests directly outside places of worship and examine options for creating designated protest zones that could be erected a significant distance away from the target audience. 

"Executive Order 61 directs the NYPD to review the Patrol Guide to evaluate proposals to limit protest activity that intimidates worshippers at houses of worship," Adams wrote on X. 

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"The First Amendment protects speech - but time, place, and manner rules protect the right to pray in peace," he said.

The move stems from a protest outside Park East Synagogue on Manhattan's Upper East Side last month, where an event was being held to encourage Jewish New Yorkers to move to the occupied West Bank into Israeli settlements, which are illegal under international law. Many of the settlers there were born and raised in New York City. 

The more settlements that crop up in the area, the less chance that Palestinians have at creating a viable, contiguous state.

Protesters outside the synagogue chanted "Death to the IDF" and "globalise the intifada" among other slogans. The IDF is the "Israeli Defence Forces", the name Israel gives to its army, and intifada is the Arabic word for uprising, used to refer to injustice. 

In a statement at the time, Mamdani suggested he did not condone the language used by the protesters, but he also did not encourage the event that was taking place inside the synagogue.

"These sacred spaces should not be used to promote activities in violation of international law," he said. 

The Anti-Defamation League, which has long regulated political and media narratives to favour Israel, said the event was in support of Jews going back to their "ancestral homeland". 

'I served you'

Shortly after Mamdani won the 4 November election, Adams took a taxpayer-funded visit to Israel, where he said that he “served” Israeli Jews as the mayor of the US city.

The remarks sparked backlash and again raised questions about Israel's outsized influence in US politics. 

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During a stop in occupied East Jerusalem, Adams told his audience, “I wanted to come back here to Israel and let you know that I served you as the mayor. I want to continue to have the title that’s more important to me than anything: I’m your brother.”

His office said he convened a “multi-day trip” to meet Israeli government officials and visit religious and historic sites.

The visit highlighted the sharp contrast with Israel critic Mamdani, who was asked, along with other candidates earlier in the campaign season, what country he would visit first if elected.

While every other candidate answered Israel, Mamdani said, “I would stay in New York City.”

Adams’s tenure has been marked by an increasingly aggressive handling of pro-Palestinian protests, from the New York Police Department crackdown on Nakba-day demonstrators in Brooklyn to the police sweeps of student encampments at Columbia University. 

Rights groups say the pattern reflects a broader effort to criminalise pro-Palestinian organising, even as Adams repeatedly defends police conduct and labels student protesters as “co-opted by outside agitators”.

Adams was also previously indicted by US federal prosecutors for receiving illegal campaign contributions and “valuable benefits” from Turkish nationals dating back to 2014, while he was Brooklyn Borough president and running for mayor. 

The charges were dropped after President Donald Trump took office early this year.

Adams denies any wrongdoing.