Mayor Takes Slap at 'Jew-Baiter' Fulani

New York Post/April 16, 2005
By Frankie Edozien

Mayor Bloomberg distanced himself yesterday from Independence Party leader Lenora Fulani, who created an uproar earlier in the week by defending her statement that Jews "function as mass murderers of people of color." "I find these remarks phenomenally offensive," said Bloomberg, who is courting the party for its ballot line this November.

It was in 1995 that Fulani allegedly said "Jews do the dirtiest work of capitalism to function as mass murderers of people of color." On Wednesday, she refused to back off the comment in an interview on NY1.

"I actually don't remember the particular quote," she said. "[But] one of the things I've always wanted to ask is: What is anti-Semitic about it?

"Basically, what it comes down to is a dialogue that's been going on in this country and the world on the left by many people, including progressive Jews, about the role of Israel in the Middle East."

Fulani has also been accused of describing Zionism as "Jewish corporate nationalism" and saying Jews "had to sell their souls" to acquire Israel.

Those views, Bloomberg said, belong to Fulani - not to the party on whose line he won 59,000 votes four years ago.

"I'm happy to have their endorsement, and I think a lot of the things they stand for I stand for as well," he said on his WABC radio show.

The mayor also pointed out that City Council Speaker Gifford Miller and Councilwoman Eva Moskowitz, two Manhattan Democrats who have also criticized Fulani, have run on that line in years past.