A nonprofit tied to anti-Israel activist Linda Sarsour has received millions in taxpayer dollars from New York City and state agencies, public records show. The Arab American Association of New York (AAANY), which Sarsour led from 2005 to 2017, was awarded more than $4.1 million in government funding between her final year as executive director and 2024.
The group received $3.3 million from New York City and another $854,000 from New York State—mostly from the Department of State. The county’s Office of Children and Family Services also disbursed $20,000. Watchdog group OpenTheBooks reported that most of the city’s funding remains untraceable to a specific agency, raising further transparency concerns.
Sarsour, a close ally of New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani (D), has remained unapologetic about her anti-Israel activism. At a September Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) conference, she bragged that a CAIR-backed PAC was Mamdani’s largest donor. CAIR’s national director, Nihad Awad, sparked outrage in 2023 when he said he was “happy to see” Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel.
Fresh off Mamdani’s victory, Sarsour vowed to remove pro-Israel Democrats from office. “You do the right thing, you keep your job,” she said Thursday. “You don’t do the right thing, you don’t keep your job.”
Under current director Marwa Janini, a former Students for Justice in Palestine activist, AAANY has continued its radical agenda—backing Mamdani’s “Not on Our Dime” bill targeting charities that support Israel and organizing the “Flood Brooklyn for Palestine” protest that devolved into riots.
