NY lawmaker takes heat for pushing ‘antisemitic’ labor union resolution condemned by Legal Aid Society

State Sen. Jessica Ramos is taking heat for urging fellow lawmakers to sign a statement backing the union representing Legal Aid lawyers’ right to consider and pass a pro-Palestinian resolution condemning Israel that critics have slammed as antisemitic.

The resolution championed by the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys — part of the United Auto Workers Local 2325 — has been condemned by the employer of its lawyers, the Legal Aid Society, which receives millions of dollars in public funding to represent indigent clients.

A judge issued a restraining order on the vote after four union members from the Nassau County Legal Aid Society filed suit, calling the resolution “rank antisemitism.”

“Free speech is a fundamental tenet of democracy. I may or may not agree with what you have to say, but I will defend your right to say it,” Ramos (D-Queens), who chairs the Senate Labor Committee, said in a letter to lawmakers.

“As labor chair, I am concerned with the injunction at issue in this lawsuit. Employers should not have the ability to stop democratic processes within unions because they do not approve of the contents of the debate. …this would set a dangerous precedent for free speech in the workplace, an issue I have championed and an issue that is central to workers’ ability to organize,” she added.

But Assemblyman Charles Lavine (D-Glen Cove) called out Ramos for wanting lawmakers to back a union that is promoting a “blatantly anti-Israel and anti-American polemic.”

“Please be aware that a UAW Local resolution that Senator Jessica Ramos supports and that she and UAW Rep Aaron Eisenberg are asking us to support is blatantly anti-Israeli and anti-American polemic.  There are obvious reasons for Eisenberg’s refusal to provide us with the resolution as per my request,” Lavine said.

“Attached you will find the resolution which contains all the usual and by now trite buzzwords such as apartheid, ethnic cleansing, colonial occupation and genocide,’” said Lavine, president of the New York chapter of the National Association of Jewish Legislators.

“It is entirely dismissive of the primitive atrocities of October 7 and never once references nor calls for the immediate release of the kidnapped Israelis. It accuses our United States of escalating violence and voices support for the `Palestine liberation struggle.’ I for one saw more than enough of the true nature of that `liberation struggle’ on October 7. As an American, I am appalled at the deceptive strategy employed to secure our signatures and I will not support the resolution,” he continued.

Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz (D-Bronx) said he supports free speech, not hate speech.

“The constant false attacks on Israel is antisemitism,” Dinowitz said.

Other lawmakers told The Post they won’t go near the resolution.

But there are some legislators who staunchly back the Palestinian cause who might sign on, among them democratic socialist Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani (D-Astoria), who participated in a hunger strike calling for a ceasefire to stop Israel’s retaliatory strikes in Gaza after Hamas invaded the Jewish State on Oct. 7.

“Would have been much better if they had stood for the release of the kidnapped people held by Hamas,” Lavine said on X of the hunger strike.

The UAW had no immediate comment.