Via: @WOLPalestine “BRAD LANDER, YOU CAN’T HIDE! ELBIT PROFITS FROM GENOCIDE!” Protesters are chanting at Brad Lander, who is attending tonight’s October 7 vigil alongside Zohran Mamdani. A year ago today, I called out their attendance at this same vigil. People told me it was just electoral politics, something Mamdani had to do to win. He’s mayor now. That explanation deserves scrutiny. During Lander’s tenure as NYC comptroller, city pension holdings in Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer, increased during the genocide in Gaza. Meanwhile, in Britain, Palestine Action activists have faced terrorism-related charges, imprisonment and hunger strikes over their campaign targeting Elbit. Yet in NYC, Lander continues to receive warm receptions in progressive political and media circles, including from people who publicly condemn Israel’s genocide of Gaza. Mamdani campaigned alongside him, and the Elbit investments received nowhere near the scrutiny they warranted. How can the same political circles condemn the weapons industry, embrace politicians responsible for overseeing investments in it, and treat the people challenging those investments as the problem? This is not a minor disagreement about messaging. It is about public money, political accountability and the enormous distance between professed solidarity with Palestinians and the exercise of political power.