Who Actually Complained about New Rochelle’s Israeli Flag?

EDITOR’S NOTE: this article is being cross-posted on March 3, 2024 because Substack unilaterally banned the article based on a bogus complaint filed by Isaiah Jeremy Marcano Avilés.

Substack Banned My Reporting on Israeli Flag Controversy Based on a Bogus Complaint

Who is Isaiah Jeremy Marcano Avilés?

NEW ROCHELLE, NY (February 25, 2024) — Mayor Yadira Ramos-Herbert and Council Members Shane Osinloye and David Peters have never answered after they were asked why they wanted the Israeli flag removed from a flagpole in front of City Hall. Instead, they have claimed they received complaints from constituents about the flag, including a claim that it is illegal to fly a foreign flag on public property in New York State, and so were compelled to act on their behalf.

The trio have refused to say who complained and about what, so I set about to find out as best I could. I am not done digging but here is what I have learned so far.

The first mention of complaints about the Israeli flag flying in front of New Rochelle City Hall reported to the City administration were a pair of emails sent to City Manager Kathleen Gill by Yadira and Shane on January 16, 2024, the day City Council met for the first Regular Legislative Meeting of the newly seated council.

Yadira emailed Kathleen and all Council Members that morning. Her first words in raising the flag issue were, “A few of us have received calls asking that we take down the Israeli flag. I know your office has also received the calls.”

This is important because throughout the flag controversy, Yadira, then Shane, and later Council Member David Peters, proved unwilling to say why they were opposed to removing the Israeli flag only that they were responding to complaints they received from unnamed others.

It turns out that there was one person making repeated phone calls not many callers making one call each.

Others like Council Member Matt Stern claimed he and his fellow Democrats did not seek to remove the flag at all but were merely asking about flag policy. This is untrue. I have since published emails obtained under FOIL that show every Democrat agreed with Yadira’s request to remove the flag.

This includes Matt.

Knowing who complained and why is critical to unraveling the motivations behind Democrats’ demands to remove the Israeli flag in secret — before voting a month later to keep the flag up when forced to cast a vote in public.

The entire mess began with Yadira saying she was inquiring about the flag because there were “calls”, that she got calls and Kathleen got calls. This is misleading as the “calls” turned out to be one guy making repeated phone calls to Yadira, a secretary in Kathleen’s office, and Council Member Martha Lopez-Hanratty.

Yadira went on to ask two questions: (1) “a constituent mentioned that it was against the law for a municipality to hang a foreign flag, absent a few exceptions. They mentioned this statute (§141). Is this statute applicable to our situation?”; (2) how long did the Ukrainian flag fly and “when it was taken down or why”?

She appears to have gotten her § 141 question from Shane. It is important to note, because the lie was repeated so often by Shane and others, that § 141 does not prohibit foreign flags on flagpoles on public property in New York State as was explained during the public session of the February 13 COW Meeting by Kathleen and Dawn Warren and in Executive Session at the February 20 RLM Meeting. Obviously, all of the Democrats including Shane and Yadira came to accept this because they all voted to keep the Israeli flag up at the February 20 RLM Meeting.

It is tempting to think that perhaps Shane and his legal brain trust of Dumb & Dumber, LLC deliberately ignored the word “upon” and deceitfully conflated “building” with “flagpole” to twist the meaning of the law while ignoring other laws on how to display a foreign flag properly on a flagpole in New York State. Having spent time with some of these people, I can say with confidence they are just stupid; there are some shockingly dumb people sitting on the New Rochelle City Council.

Keep in mind that more foreign flags are flown in New York State than any other state because it is home to the United Nations and various consulates, embassies, and ambassador residences. Not surprisingly, New York has laws and policies about how to display a foreign flag on a flagpole and none that ban it.

After the RLM meeting on January 16, Shane replied to Yadira’s email.

He began, “I have also received complaints regarding our city’s raising of the Israeli flag, interestingly enough, from my constituents who identify as Jewish.”

The person who called Yadira, Martha, and the City Manager’s office is, by all appearances, not Jewish, so Shane appears to be referring to different people. So, who are they?

Before the COW Meeting on February 13, I sent emails to council members asking about complaints they may have received.

• How many complaints were made to you?
• Did the people identify themselves to you?
• Are they previously known to you?
• What were the nature of the complaints?
• Did either raise the statute cited by Shane and Yadira?
• What response did you make?
• Was there anything rude or controversial about the complaints?
• What are their names?
• Anything else?

Martha said she received multiple calls from the same person, probably the same person who called Yadira and Kathleen. This proved to be correct. Matt and Al said they had not received any complaints. I did not receive replies from Shane, David, Sara or Yadira.

At the COW Meeting on February 13, David Peters offered his usual heaping plate of word salad, which included this mumbo jumbo: “there are many different people that we also have to take into consideration as a city and so all we’re saying is if there are any constituents in our city who are offering any kind of opposition or questions around a flag of a different country other than the United States being flown as a foreign government that’s something that we now because of what’s going on here now we need to be able to rectify”.

David may discover someday that there are plenty of things about New Rochelle government that some residents oppose or question — downtown development, funding the police, the council-manager form of government. There is no need to rectify those things because 11 people lash out at CBTH.

On February 14, I made a FOIL request for “All emails from members of the public to city officials and council members, including the mayor, on the topic of the Israeli flag from October 7, 2023, to Present.”

I received responsive emails sent to Sara, Martha, and Yadira from the City Clerk.

I responded to the Clerk who fulfilled my FOIL request expressing deep skepticism as to the lack of a response from Shane and David:

There is one thing about this that struck me as odd about this response, given their active role on the Israeli flag issue, that there are no emails to Shane Osinloye and David Peters. I was certainly expecting some emails about §141.

Given the past practice of Noam, Sara, and Yadira using personal email accounts for city business, I can only wonder if that is now happening with Shane and David. My concern is heightened because neither seems to have a basic understanding of FOIL and OML.

Has it been made clear to them that they should not use their private email accounts for public business that anyone doing so forfeits privacy claims and makes their entire account subject to compliance with FOIL and subpoenas, and that such emails are public record regardless of where they reside?

As they are both new to council and may be confused on this point, I am asking if you or they or anyone else searched their private accounts for emails responsive to my request above.

While not necessarily a complete list, my records indicate Shane and David between then have 4 private email addresses they have used in a public-facing context:

Shane Osinloye

shane4newro@gmail.com

shane.osinloye@gmail.com

David Peters

peters.david1812@gmail.com

peters3971@verizon.net

Please ask them to confirm there are no responsive emails in any of their private accounts.

Shane and David were copied on this email.

I received no response from the City Clerk or Shane or David. I believe the pair are deliberately withholding public records held in their private email accounts, a crime under New York State law.

Neither know that I caught the others using private emails for public business because their emails ended up in other people’s email accounts that I had FOIL’d separately on unrelated matters sometimes years later (for example a private Noam email ended up in a school board FOIL). Once I get such evidence against them I will expose them in ways they will not enjoy — unless they suddenly “remember” and turn over missing emails right quick.

As they are not willing to say who complained to them, I am free to speculate as to who might be among those complaining to Shane and David in their private email accounts.

One way to get at who might have sent emails to Shane or David is to look at the 11 speakers at CBTH on January 13 who spoke out against Israel, the Israeli flag and/or referenced § 141.

##### CBTH Speakers Opposed to the Israeli Flag

1. Joan Glickman^!

2. Sameh Fakhouri

3. Cecelia Havan

4. Fatimah Gilliam^

5. Bruce Soloway^!

6. Noelle Elia

7. Natalie Kabasakalian^

8. Judith Kaufman!

9. Harry Soloway for Howard Horowitz^!

10. Michael Cammer^!

11. Myriam Decime

^ referenced § 141

! identified as Jewish

Six of the eleven speakers opposing the flag cited § 141 and Shane’s incorrect legal opinion: Joan Glickman, Fatimah Gilliam, Bruce Soloway, Natalie Kabasakalian, Harry Soloway for Howard Horowitz, and Michael Cammer.

The video above is actually high comedy when you contrast these dopes’ absolute certainty they are right with the absolute certainty they are dead wrong. As I said before, these are some dumb people, supporting some really dumb council members.

Anyone raising § 141 at CBTH is on my list of suspects of emails being withheld by Shane because Shane made it a point to say at the February 13 COW meeting that he raised § 141 because it was raised to him by constituents.

In a second email on January 16, Shane said “…would it be prudent to follow the letter of NYS law, especially since it was brought to our attention? I have a link to the state senate law, which reads the same as Justia:.” Shane said he was not acting as his own lawyer so who sent him the two links mentioned in his email? And where is that email?

In her January 16 email, Yadira said, “a constituent mentioned that it was against the law for a municipality to hang a foreign flag absent a few exceptions. They mentioned this statute (§141).”

Shane began his first January 16 email by saying, “I have also received complaints regarding our city’s raising of the Israeli flag, interestingly enough, from my constituents who identify as Jewish.”

Five of the eleven speakers opposing the flag identified as Jewish: Joan Glickman, Bruce Soloway, Judith Kaufman, Harry Soloway for Howard Horowitz, Michael Cammer,

A common thread among these anti-Israel speakers is NewROAR — founded by David Peters — so any of them is a suspect. I will not be surprised if the whole flag flap was a David Peters’ production orchestrated with Shane.

I was not there, but I am told that immediately after the CBTH “Two Minute Hate”, Shane, David, and Yadira went over to chat with the anti-Israel speakers which included NewROAR members. My sources said it appeared the trio were warmly received by the anti-Israel crowd.

As a side note, most anti-Israel speakers did not state their address as required at CBTH, which says something about them — readers can decide what. I will be interested to see the meeting minutes, which list speakers and their addresses from the cards each speaker fills out.

Now to the emails I received under my FOIL for “all emails from members of the public to city officials and council members, including the mayor, on the topic of the Israeli flag from October 7, 2023 to Present.”

The emails identify “the caller”.

Isaiah J. Marcano Avilés is an attorney who works for a large international research marketing company based in Paris. He graduated from college in 2014.

Here are a series of email exchanges:

Isaiah J. Marcano Avilés to Yadira 1/11/24

Isaiah J. Marcano Avilés to Martha 1/19/24

Isaiah J. Marcano Avilés to Yadira 1/30/24

His first email complaining about the Israeli flag was sent to Yadira on January 11, 2024. He followed up with additional emails to Yadira and Martha and phone calls to Yadira, Martha and Kathleen.

I am interested to know Isaiah’s reaction to how his complaint evolved into a huge controversy but ultimately resulted in a 7-0 vote by council to leave the flag up. I left him a voice mail on Friday but did not hear back.

On February 8, I broke the story about the Democrats holding a secret “vote” to remove the Israeli flag.

Between January 11 and February 8, the only emails provided to me under my February 1 FOIL request of anyone complaining about the flag are the ones above, sent by Isaiah J. Marcano Avilés.

Are we to believe he is the sole complainer? One guy complained so the Mayor felt compelled to act? I have never heard of him and could not even confirm he resides in New Rochelle. This does not pass the smell test.

It seems highly improbable that there are no other emails complaining about the flag or citing § 141.

Three people sent emails after I broke the story — two of the people complained about me. One blamed me for creating the controversy that was created by Yadira, David and Shane. The other asserted that I wanted the Russian flag to fly over City Hall. As I said, dumb and dumber.

Eugene Tozzi to Yadira 2/9/24

Michael Cammer to Noam 2/11/24

Michael Cammer to ALL 2/13/24

Maynard Makman to Yadira 2/14/24

There was one comment posted on Instagram on January 16 complaining about the Israeli flag.

That changed dramatically when the City of New Rochelle published a post on Instagram about the Community Flag Ceremony where the Israeli flag will be lowered and the Pan-African flag raised.

The Community Flag Ceremony post generated the exact type of hostility that Council Member David Peters claimed does not exist among those seeking to remove the Israeli flag — his supporters.

Over 100 hateful comments were appended to the post in the 24 hours before the post was deleted by the City of New Rochelle on Saturday, shortly after I asked city officials about the comments.

I took screenshots before the post was deleted.

Here is a sample of comments, many of them from members of a group calling itself New Rochelle Liberation Coalition whose publicly listed members include U.S. Congressman Jamaal Bowman, New Rochelle Board of Education Member Makeda Lewis, WESPAC Foundation, the fiscal sponsor for pro-HAMAS groups like National Students for Justice for Palestine and various far-left groups.

Here is what some of them had to say:

“g3nOc1d3” is code for genocide. If anyone knows what “🍉:” means let me know.

UPDATE: a reader says “Thank you for reporting on this. Regarding your question – Palestinian supporters have adopted the watermelon as their symbol because it is the color of their flag.”

That is it for now. I will continue to pursue additional records of complaints, especially with David and Shane.

UPDATE: I was expecting the ugly comments, deleted when the Community Flag Ceremony post was deleted, to spill over into comment threads on entirely unrelated posts. That has now begun to happen. All of this is to the point I made previously about Yadira bringing the Gaza War to New Rochelle.