...The critics, Mamdani said, are attempting to distract from war crimes by making this about “Israel.” But it is specifically about New York organizations funding human rights violations, as Mamdani said in an interview and elsewhere.

“This is a bill about what New Yorkers are doing,” agrees Diala Shamas, a senior staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights, who calls the legislation “exciting.”

Legally, Shamas says, it’s “uncontroversial,” explaining, “It’s already illegal to aid and abet war crimes, but it’s important to name when New York money is complicit, that this issue matters and that these lives matter.” The bill also provides a remedy and a process for victims to collect damages from these charities...

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