NJ Dem Gub Candidates – Nobody Opposes IHRA Fascism – Fulop Double Flip Flop Now Supports IHRA

While all 6 of the Gubernatorial Democratic Party candidates tout themselves as being ready to lead NJ in the challenges of the dozens of ways the Trump administration is bringing harm to NJ – every one of them falls down on the job when it comes to protecting free speech and pro-Palestine advocacy in NJ. In so doing they stand ready to hand us over to Trump fascism that is denying due process and claims the right to deport even US citizens based upon false accusations without such processes.

None has made a specific call for the release of Mahmoud Khalil.

None has demanded an end to the revocation of the visas of NJ college students.

None has called for the defense of Princeton University with the massive cut to research funding over the issue of Palestine advocacy by Princeton students and issues related to “DEI”.

None have defended Rutgers that has also been named on Trump’s university hit list with about 60 other universities and colleges over student advocacy for Palestine.

And none currently has an articulated position opposing NJ legislature Democratic Party initiative to pass NJ laws based upon an Executive Order of Trump from his first term to codify a false definition of antisemitism known as IHRA that defines oppositon to Israel as antisemitic.

This editor has been reaching out to the 6 Democratic candidates since November 2024.

MESSAGE TO IHRA OPPONENTS SUPPORTING FULOP

Fulop has been held up as a progressive challenge – carrying the idea of “Democrats for Change” but Fulop himself keeps changing his position on IHRA. He was for it in January, against it in February and in April he was for it again. FightBackBetter was proud of the role our news site and Green Party Assembly candidate Lisa Ryan (LD7) played in documenting his first flip to oppose IHRA. But since then Fulop returned to his earlier position as documented at a candidate forum sponsored by prominent NJ Muslim organizations. There he slid back and stated that he WOULD sign the IHRA bill. Fulop has also picked Sheena Collum as his Lt. Governor running mate and as mayor of South Orange she has presided over the false and fraudulent lawfare prosecution of Lisa Davis.

To IHRA opponents still supporting Fulop after his latest flip flop: you can not be in favor of Fulop for Governor and opposed to IHRA in actual fact. If you are backing Fulop while you claim to oppose IHRA you are playing games with the lives of around 1 million NJ citizens and residents who will be harmed if Fulop were Governor and he fulfills his promise to sign the IHRA legislation.

The positions of Mikie Sherrill and Steve Sweeney in support of IHRA were reported by Jewish Insider. Steve Sweeney was also the primary NJ Senate supporter of a predecessor bill in NJ along the same lines which was unsuccessful but would have also had deleterious impact on our free speech rights in 2019.

Gottheimer of course is a YAHOO for IHRA lawfare in NJ – he has called upon the Trump Justice Department to come for the entire NJ Palestinian American community. He has constantly made lawfare arguments, to ban a book and a class and a teacher at Princeton University, to punish high school students in Teaneck, and when he launched his campaign in November he stressed that lawfare attacks on pro-Palestinian sentiment would be a priority of his campaign and how he would govern.

Silence is the Voice of Complicity

There is no excuse of any Gubernatorial candidate to be silent on this issue. That is exactly what Ras Baraka and Sean Spiller have been (to this editor’s knowledge) – absolutely silent on IHRA. This editor has incessantly reached out to every candidate since November 2024 and has not heard any publicly stated position from either. They both can find endless words as to why you should vote for them but can not put two words together “NO IHRA”. This editor has been told that Baraka has quietly whispered opposition but Baraka is not a whisperer – he speaks loudly his positions so no promise from anyone what Baraka whispered opposition carries any weight to anyone who actually looks at the issue carefully.

It is unclear to this editor – which is worse – silence on IHRA or support of IHRA. SIlence means you have no political backbone – you defer to others calling for harm of our communities.

“IHRA OPPONENTS” WHO SUPPORT ANY OF THE 6 ARE POSERS

Campaigners for any of these candidates who profess to oppose IHRA are prioritizing political expediency over our rights. They do not really care that much about IHRA if they support a candidate in favor of it openly or who is silent on it. They only care which of the candidates will vote to take away our free speech rights – not protecting our rights. If you support any of the 6 Democratic Party candidates – you are not truly in support of our rights!

Fightbackbetter has been steadfast since November of 2024 about the importance of Palestine advocates to pressure the Gubernatorial candidates for statements opposing IHRA. We had a temporary victory when Fulop stated at a South Jersey meet and greet that he is opposed and we documented and were the first to report that position. However as his name implies Fulop is a Flip-Flopper which he did twice on this issue over a span of about 3 months.

Unfortunately opponents of IHRA have not articulated across the board a clear position to the Gubernatorial nor to the Assembly candidates that they will use their vote to oppose IHRA. That is the strategy that FightBackBetter has struggled to promote – we have received some support for the idea but there are too many in the pro-Palestine and anti-IHRA melieu that subordinate our Palestine and free speech concerns to political expediency when it comes to supporting politicians and in particular the Democratic Party.

The method can and would work – the method of leveraging our votes to oppose IHRA but the support has been inconsistent. This editor continues to promote that strategy but I have to admit it is not embraced on the whole which means that in all likelihood IHRA can easily become a fascist reality for our state and it would be in part due to our inability to leverage our political power to stop it.

We have the power to stop IHRA but we are not utilizing it – and it is not for lack of trying by FightBackBetter,

We are going to do a run down of the Assembly primary candidates in a separate piece shortly. There is some promising opposition to IHRA there – there is strong support for IHRA among the incumbents and large swaths of silence across the Assembly Democratic Party candidates.

FIGHTBACKBETTER RECOMMENDATION

FightBackBetter recommends to vote for none of the NJ Gubernatorial Democratic Party primary candidates if none of them oppose IHRA. This editor will continue to promote the idea that the two silent ones come out opposed but will not accept any quiet whispered assurances from their supporters that they are opposed – the reason they want to keep it quiet is so they can whisper sweet nothing to both sides. We should not abide by silence or support for IHRA.

IF YOU VOTE FOR A CANDIDATE WHO IS SILENT OR WHO SUPPORTS IHRA THAT IS YOUR ACTUAL POLITICAL POSITION – SUPPORT FOR IHRA – REGARDLESS OF YOUR ADVOCACY OTHERWISE

That is where this editor stands on the issue. Do not vote for any of them unless they clearly and publicly on the record state their opposition to IHRA.