New York State Attorney General Letitia James quietly circulated a petition Saturday to other Democrats pushing an end to the \u201chumanitarian catastrophe\u201d in Gaza.<\/p>\n
An early draft of the petition circulated to multiple elected officials and obtained by The Post did not condemn Hamas terrorists for the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are united in this moment by a truth we can no longer ignore: a famine is unfolding in Gaza before the eyes of the world,\u201d according to the draft, which claimed to be on behalf of a \u201ccoalition of multiracial, multiethnic, and multifaith elected officials.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/teachers-students-arriving-harry-s-18779028.jpg\")
New York State Attorney General Letitia James quietly circulated a petition Saturday to other Democrats pushing an end to the \u201chumanitarian catastrophe\u201d in Gaza that failed to mention Hamas terrorist\u2019s role in the crisis \u2014 until The Post came calling. KEVIN C DOWNS<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no denying it\u2014we are witnessing a humanitarian catastrophe \u2026\u201d the petition added.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe urge our fellow Americans to speak out, to support relief efforts, and to demand that our leaders use every tool of diplomacy to end this crisis. History will remember what we did, or failed to do, in this moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
James\u2019 office initially declined to comment on Saturday when The Post reached out about the original draft of the letter. <\/p>\n
Hours later, the AG\u2019s office sent out a news release with a new version of the letter calling for \u201cimmediate\u201d aid to Gaza \u2014 and condemning the terrorist group.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are united in this moment by both condemning the October 7th massacre perpetrated by Hamas and an unavoidable truth: a famine is unfolding in Gaza before the eyes of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
A spokesman for James insisted the reference to Hamas was added \u201cfar prior\u201d to The Post\u2019s inquiry.<\/p>\n
![\"Palestinians](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/palestinians-carry-sacks-flour-unloaded-108776061.jpg\")
An early draft of the petition circulated to multiple elected officials and obtained by The Post did not condemn Hamas terrorists for the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. AP<\/p>\n
More than 60 Democratic federal, state and city elected officials signed onto the petition, including Rep. Jerold Nadler and NYC Comptroller Brad Lander.<\/p>\n
Anti-Israel Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, a Queens socialist who James is endorsing in November\u2019s NYC mayoral election, was not among the letter\u2019s signatories but is vacationing in Uganda through the end of the month. <\/p>\n
Councilwoman Inna Vernikov (D-Brooklyn) ripped the original draft of the letter through a spokesperson.<\/p>\n
\u201cNew York is being run by a cabal of leftist Hamas apologists who would rather shield terrorists than speak the truth,\u201d Vernikov\u2019s rep said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny acknowledgment of a humanitarian crisis without addressing its cause \u2014 a terrorist regime that uses civilians as human shields \u2014 is dishonest. Ignoring that reality isn\u2019t compassion; it\u2019s complicity,\u201d the spokesperson added.<\/p>\n
State Assemblyman Charles Fall, a Democrat representing parts of Staten Island, and Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan, told The Post he signed on to the letter because the Gaza crisis\u00a0is a \u201chumanitarian issue.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are hurting, starving. Think about the kids,\u201d said Fall, who has two daughters, ages 6 and 11. \u201cThe letter is balanced. It talks about the hostages.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York State Attorney General Letitia James quietly circulated a petition Saturday to other Democrats pushing an end…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":95682,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,4526,373,24980,5248,405,403,24102,5226,5225,5228,5227,5341,80,67,586,132,5230,68,1154,2969,5301],"class_list":{"0":"post-95681","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-gaza-strip","10":"tag-israel-hamas-war","11":"tag-letitia-james","12":"tag-metro","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-city","15":"tag-new-york-state-assembly","16":"tag-newyork","17":"tag-newyorkcity","18":"tag-ny","19":"tag-nyc","20":"tag-nyc-mayoral-election-2025","21":"tag-politics","22":"tag-united-states","23":"tag-united-states-of-america","24":"tag-unitedstates","25":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","26":"tag-us","27":"tag-us-news","28":"tag-usa","29":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114922995257616078","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95681\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}