Reverend Khader El-Yateem and His Special Interests
While Khader El-Yateem may think being a Palestinian and a pastor makes him a great candidate, most people in Bay Ridge are looking for a councilperson to represent the neighborhood. Khader El-Yateem barely mentions Bay Ridge on his Facebook page. His personal FB page is mostly filled with politics, information about Palestine and more recently Donald Trump. I understand that Rev. El-Yateem may feel that Palestinians need more of a voice in government, but I think he needs to understand this gerrymandered district of Bay Ridge a bit better. People here need the council person to help them with schools, roads, housing, safety, community programs and beautifying the area. We don’t need our councilman using the position to fight over Israel.
In September 2016, the NYC Council took a voted in favor of an anti-BDS resolution for NYC. If they hadn’t done this vote, I don’t think Khader El-Yateem would be running for office. BDS stands for boycott, divestment and sanctions and it’s a movement to end international support for Israel’s oppression of Palestinians. The NYC Council was a bit insensitive to citizens during the meeting about the topic of BDS because Jewish council members expressed that BDS supporters are anti-semites (see Linda Sarsour speak at this meeting). The NYC Council has several strong Jewish council members and support from other non-Jewish members because Israel is an ally of the United States. Reverend El-Yateem has immediate family living in Palestine so issues with Palestine are obviously important to him.
https://www.facebook.com/khader.elyateem/posts/10153813892616332
This issue is very important to Reverand El-Yateem or he would not have made this video in 2015:
Sunset Park made the mistake of electing a councilman with special interests. Now Sunset Park suffers because the councilman, Carlos Menchaca is busy doing work on his special interests. Hotels for homeless were dropped in Sunset Park because the Councilman is not present. I feel Reverend El-Yateem’s interests would interfere with him working for Bay Ridge. I understand that there are a lot of council people working for their special interests in NYC Council, but Bay Ridge doesn’t need to see the same decline as Sunset Park.
El-Yateem Isn’t the Leadership Bay Ridge Needs
While looking on YouTube for Reverend El-Yateem, I saw this video entitled: “A Muslim Cuts a Christian Pastor’s Hair in the Church.” Why does the nationality of the barber or the person getting their hair cut matter? Maybe that’s the difference between people who are Americans and those who have immigrated here – we don’t care. Why would the nationality matter if they knew how to cut hair well? And really……..Why does the pastor get his hair cut at the church instead of inviting the barber to his home?
Most concerning in the video is when Reverend El-Yateem talked about Trump and “the whites” at 6:26 in this video. C’mon Reverend El-Yateem, Trump is not only supported by whites, in fact some Arabic store owners in Bay Ridge admitted to supporting Trump because he was a businessman. After being in a community like Bay Ridge for so many years, you would think that Reverend El-Yateem wouldn’t make such careless statements.
In this video, Khader El-Yateem said the death of Osama Bin Laden does not have any significance to Arabs or Muslims. REALLY? I know Arabs in Bay Ridge who were glad he was caught. Strangely the video’s description mentions the Palestinian- Israeli conflict (and this video is from 2011).
If Khader El-Yateem was our councilman all of his energy would go towards fighting the Jewish Councilmen over Palestine. Much like his Facebook page, Bay Ridge would easily be forgotten.
Hugs,
marlene
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