Julia Salazar, Democratic candidate for New York’s 18th Senate district, has branded herself as a progressive newcomer and enjoys the endorsement of the Democratic Socialists of America, Our Revolution, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, among left-wing figures. She has involved herself with anti-Israel groups while making unsubstantiated claims of Jewish identity.
Salazar was one of nine arrested during an anti-Israel protest at the offices of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations in July 2014, under the auspices of IfNotNow. Among other activities, the group recited the Mourner’s Kaddish for terrorists for “Palestinians and Jews,” equating murderous terrorists with those killed defending innocent (Jewish) lives.
Salazar has written multiple times for the virulently anti-Israel MondoWeiss blog, under the pen name Julia Carmel; in one instance she wrote of Israel “brutally controlling the lives of Palestinians,” while in another piece she described the response to thousands of missiles fired intentionally at civilian targets as Israel’s “brutal ground operation in Gaza.”
Salazar is listed as the current Senior Editor of Unruly, a subsidiary blog of Jewish Voice for Peace, which according to the ADL, advocates for a complete economic, cultural and academic boycott of the state of Israel, and believes that Israeli policies are motivated by deeply rooted Jewish racial chauvinism and religious supremacism.
Salazar described Students for Justice in Palestine, an organization which honors murderers of Jews such as Rasmeah Odeh and George Habash, as advocating “for the rights of Palestinians whose daily lives are impacted by Israel’s military occupation.” In 2015, Salazar co-authored a piece with notorious Israel-hater Max Blumenthal claiming a “McCarthyite” effort to “silence speech critical of Israel,” along with a “surreptitious” plan to combat BDS.
Salazar became a full-time staff organizer with Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ) in early 2017, and was an Organizing Fellow with the group. MondoWeiss praised JFREJ for “taking a strong stance against the occupation,” and JFREJ has honored anti-Israel and pro-intifada provocateurs Tony Kushner, Debbie Almontaser, Adam Shapiro and Henry Schwarzschild over the years. Salazar served on a JFREJ awards committee, together with Rebecca Vilkomerson, JVP executive director in 2017, when the group gave an award to Linda Sarsour, whose Arab American Association of New York is a JFREJ coalition partner.
Salazar is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), eventually securing an elected position on the socialist feminist working group, and her campaign is enthusiastically supported by the group. The DSA expresses solidarity with soldier-slapping Ahed Tamimi, has interviewed Ilan Pappe (disgraced historian who accuses Israel of ethnic cleansing), and at its 2017 convention, passed a resolution in favor of the BDS movement, to a chorus of delegates chanting “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” Salazar also helped found Columbia University’s chapter of J Street.
With all of her “Jewish” activities against the Jewish state, it turns out that Salazar isn’t actually Jewish. Although she claims Jewish roots on her father’s side, he was Catholic, and his funeral was held in a Catholic church. Her brother Alex denies any Jewish heritage in the family, and according to Armin Rosen of Tablet, Salazar herself was a professing Christian and pro-life activist until 2013.