A Long Island Democrat looking to unseat Republican Congressman Anthony D’Esposito has close ties to an anti-Israel Muslim activist who once accused Israel of building a pier with Palestinian corpses.
Laura Gillen — who in 2017 became the first Democrat elected as Hempstead town supervisor in more than a century but has since lost a bid to get back into elected office — has been chummy with Malik Nadeem Abid since he served on her transition team in her historic local win.
The contest for New York’s fourth district is widely viewed as a toss-up and a must-win for Democrats looking to take back the House of Representatives next year.
Abid participated in a reading of the Quran while Gillen looked on during her 2018 inauguration and has donated $1,000 to Gillen’s campaigns, according to Federal Election Commission records.
In 2018 Gillen presented Abid with a citation for “Resolution of Pakistan Day.”
The former New York chapter president of the American Muslim Voice Foundation, Abid has falsely accused Israel of “genocide” and defenders of the Jewish state of holding “satanic belief[s]”.
Abid in March 2024 baselessly said an Israeli pier was “built on the dead bodies of innocent Palestinians.”
“Stealing the rubble of their homes to build pier & a port. The rubble may have remains of thousands of Palestinians still missing,” he claimed.
In a May posting he insisted the Islamic State terrorist network was an invention of “intelligence agencies.”
Critics said the association between Gillen, who was raised devoutly Catholic, and Abid was disturbing.
“The Democratic Party is the party of division and the party of AOC and Bowman, Tlaib, Omar, you name it,” said Nassau GOP state Assemblyman Ari Brown, an Orthodox Jew. “In a quarter of a century, I have never seen Laura Gillen . . . the Jewish community means nothing to Laura Gillen, she could care less.”
Reached by phone, Abid told The Post that he stood behind all of his past comments.
In response to an inquiry about her relationship with Abid, Gillen said “I have been clear and consistent in my position, the United States must stand in solidarity with Israel in its defense against all its enemies, including Iran and support its total victory over Hamas. Israel has a right to defend itself from Tehran and its murderous proxies. In Congress, I will continue to support Israel.”
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