While different factions debate the efficacy and legality of a ballot referendum calling on Pittsburgh to entirely cut ties with Israel, Mayor Ed Gainey, less than a year away from a re-election campaign, is walking a tight rope.
Critics of the referendum say it would cripple city operations, violates state law and is antisemitic. Proponents argue that they don’t want their tax dollars to fund genocide, and they push back on the notion that it is antisemitic.
Mr. Gainey has mostly remained silent on the issue, even as his communications director, Maria Montano, who signed the petition to get the issue before voters, chose to resign from city government.
In a statement Thursday afternoon, Mr. Gainey said “the war in Gaza is a very charged topic that has engaged the passion and activism of many of our residents.”
He touted his administration’s efforts to bring the Muslim and Jewish communities together to “listen to their concerns” during protests at the University of Pittsburgh in the spring.
Mr. Gainey’s statement did not mention the referendum or its contents or the arguments of its supporters and critics. Pressed by reporters after an unrelated press conference Thursday, Mr. Gainey walked away.
His administration declined further requests for comment Friday.
“He needs to take a much stronger stance on this [referendum],” University of Pittsburgh political science professor Jerry Shuster said.
Pennsylvania’s Democratic U.S. senators, Bob Casey and John Fetterman, issued statements explicitly condemning the referendum, as did state Rep. Dan Frankel, a Democrat who represents parts of Pittsburgh including Squirrel Hill. Mr. Casey and Mr. Frankel are up for re-election this year.
The mayor’s inability or unwillingness to take a hard stand could lose him voters, Mr. Shuster said, making this past week a defining moment in his re-election campaign before it even officially begins.
The referendum, if passed, would have long-lasting impacts on city operations. Any contracts with state agencies such as the Department of Transportation would have to be stopped. The city wouldn’t be able to buy fuel for vehicles or use Duquesne Light to luminate city buildings.
Because of Pennsylvania law, state agencies can’t contract with businesses that boycott Israel. Duquesne Light has a contract with an Israeli foundation.
That would impact everyone, not just the progressive wing of the Democrats, but all Democrats and Republicans, Mr. Shuster said.
“He hasn’t himself come out and opposed this, and I think he needs to do it in very strong language, [saying] that the implications to the city are so negative that he can’t possibly support it,” Mr. Shuster said.
But opposing the referendum outright would likely cost Mr. Gainey votes. In fact, some progressive voters in the city have taken to social media to announce a withdrawal of support for the mayor due to his handling of Ms. Montano’s departure.
The mayor has said her resignation was her own choice, but a contingent of people on X believe it was forced.
Part of the tight-rope act includes hearing from organizations on both sides of the conflict.
In November, Mr. Gainey’s deputy chief of staff, Felicity Williams, met with the University of Pittsburgh’s “Students for Justice in Palestine” group, internal emails obtained by the Post-Gazette show.
“They are [a] multiethnic group to represent everyone made up of Jews, Palestinian, Black and Arab people,” she wrote in an email requesting a time for the mayor to meet with the group. “They oppose antisemitism and islamophobia.”
She also noted that the group volunteered to “be a resource to the mayor” and invited him to attend one of its educational workshops.
It’s unclear whether the mayor ever met with the group or attended a workshop, and his office didn’t respond to requests for comment Friday.
In April, the mayor was invited to attend the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh’s Passover seder, a feast to begin the Passover holiday.
Internal emails show his chief of staff, Jake Wheatley, advised members of the mayor’s administration that Mr. Gainey couldn’t stay for the entire event “because he wasn’t able to stay for the Muslim breaking of their fast.”
It’s unclear exactly what event Mr. Wheatley was referring to, but the Turkish Cultural Center of Pittsburgh hosted Mr. Gainey for an Iftar dinner about two weeks before the email was sent.
“There is a certain number of Palestinians in the city, and he needs to make sure that he doesn’t disassociate himself from them,” Mr. Shuster said. “But at the same time, they are far fewer than those who support the Israelis … I think he has to [bridge] the divide a lot better than he has done so far.”
The Pittsburgh chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, which backs the referendum, maintains that “63% of Pittsburgh voters support the referendum,” though details of who was surveyed and how were not made available.
Without the ongoing disruption of the referendum, Mr. Gainey’s campaign already had a reason to be on its toes concerning his re-election.
A poll this spring showed that fewer than half of the likely Democratic voters surveyed said they had a favorable view of Mr. Gainey. If the election were held at the time of polling, only 42% said they would want to see him re-elected.
“The big takeaway is that Ed Gainey is what we call underwater,” said Kristin Kanthak, a political science professor at Pitt who reviewed the poll last month.
The poll showed Mr. Gainey had a favorability rating of 41%. For an incumbent to have a rating below 50% is “going to give you some pause,” Ms. Kanthak said.
And in head-to-head polls in the spring, Mr. Gainey beat out three hypothetical challengers, but tied with one – Allegheny County Controller Corey O’Connor.
Mr. Gainey and Mr. O’Connor tied with 37% of the vote. About 25% said they were still undecided.
Mr. O’Connor, a Democrat like Mr. Gainey, has not said whether he intends to run against Mr. Gainey in a primary.
Mr. Gainey isn’t alone in grappling with how to handle the calls to divest from Israel from a leadership standpoint. Cities across the country have seen an increase in what’s called Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, or BDS, movements.
The Anti-Defamation League has said such movements seek to “isolate, demonize and ultimately dismantle the Jewish state and the right to Jewish self-determination,” according to Dan Granot, the ADL’s national director of antisemitism policy.
So far in 2024, the ADL has seen the movements increasingly target city councils, where past efforts were focused on colleges and universities or state governments.
“My sense is that BDS has just failed at every other level that they’ve tried, and this is just looking for the next attempt to find a hook that could work,” Mr. Granot said. “Despite the fact that they’ve been unable to really succeed at any other level.”
The U.S. Department of State labeled the movements as the “manifestation of anti-Semitism” in a statement from 2020. Pennsylvania passed an anti-BDS law in 2016, making it one of 37 states to have similar laws on the books.
Mr. Granot said it’s hard to measure any economic impact of the movements as they haven’t succeeded. “The real risk has always been reputational,” he said.
“Whether its academic boycotts hurting Israeli academics, [or] college students and activists who are attacked and intimidated by supporters of BDS, the impact has largely been reputational much more than what we’ve seen financially,” he said.
Despite ADL’s characterization of the movement, Mr. Granot said he doesn’t think most supporters of BDS campaigns are antisemitic; in fact, he said he believes they’re “well-intentioned, and often horrifically misinformed.”
Pittsburgh’s chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America has not categorized this referendum as a BDS movement, but both legal challenges have. Traditionally, BDS follows three guiding principles, one of which is the eradication of the Jewish state.
“This would send a harmful and alienating message to the Jewish community in Pittsburgh, where we saw the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history,” Mr. Granot said. “That, to me, is the impact of this.”
First Published: August 17, 2024, 9:30 a.m.
Updated: August 17, 2024, 5:47 p.m.