NEW ROCHELLE, NY (May 6, 2024) — On February 28, 2024, we were the first to report on a backroom effort by Yadira Ramos-Herbert to remove the Israeli flag from a flagpole in front of City Hall.
As previously reported, Ramos-Herbert’s predecessor, Noam Bramson, proposed raising the flag on October 10, 2023, to show solidarity with the people of Israel in the wake of the 10/7 terror attack. Yadira Ramos-Herbert supported Bramson’s proposal to raise the Israeli flag.
The flag was raised on October 12, 2023.
These readily-available emails were not included in a batch released February 8, under a Freedom of Information request we filed on February 1, 2024:
Emails between City Council members, including the Mayor, and City officials regarding the Israeli flag in front of City Hall.
Mayor Bramson’s October 10 email was sent to the private email accounts of City Council members. Bramson used a private gmail account (srmarnel@gmail.com) for Sara Kaye.
The use of private email accounts by elected New Rochelle officials and the withholding of public records in these accounts by these same official is long-standing unlawful practice used to deceive the public.
On February 29, 2024, we made a FOIL request for all public records in the srmarnel@gmail.com account covering Sara Kaye’s entire tenure on the New Rochelle City Council:
All public records in the personal email account of Council Member Sara Kaye from January 1, 2020 to present: srmarnel@gmail.com
On April 27, 2024 we received 91 pages of public records Sara Kaye’s srmarnel@gmail.com account.
Among these emails are three concerning the Israeli flag controversy not made public before today. In them, the Mayor says he has received requests from residents to hold an official inter-faith gathering to “recognize the events in Israel” but comes down on the site of not holding an official event.
Council member Liz Fried expressed support for releasing an official statement from the Mayor and Council and raising the Israeli flag.
Council member Martha Lopez agreed with Fried.
In the end, there was no official statement or an official event.
The Israeli flag was raised on October 12, taken down on October 28, replaced by the Italian flag, then raised again on November 1.
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