WHITE HOT MAD: Asian Community Members from Accidentally Released Gov. Murphy Memo Demand Apology, End to New Jersey-Israel Commission, Call for Ceasefire by Senate Candidate Tammy
For Immediate Release Contact: Tea Burns
February 15, 2024 (347) 841-6721
News Release
“WHITE HOT MAD”
Asian Community Members from Accidentally Released Gov. Murphy Memo
Demand Apology, End to New Jersey-Israel Commission,
Call for Ceasefire by Senate Candidate Tammy
Guests Removed by Murphy Staff Available for Interview
VIDEO, STATEMENT AT HTTP://TINYURL.COM/MURPHYPALESTINE
PRINCETON, NJ — The Asian American guests who were violently removed from “white hot mad” Governor Phil and Tammy Murphy’s Lunar New Year celebration, who claim the guests “ruined the party” in a memo inadvertently sent to NJ Advance Media, are demanding an apology for their dismissive treatment by Governor Phil and Tammy Murphy and violent removal by the governor’s security staff.
According to one of the attendees who was removed, “We demand an apology from the Murphys for our brutal treatment at a celebration of our own cultural heritage, and for the blatant dismissal of Palestinian lives. The only true apology worth accepting is an immediate dissolution of the New Jersey-Israel Commission, an immediate call for ceasefire, and support for the Palestinian right to self-determination, resistance, and return to their homeland.”
The Asian community members politely explained Israel’s bombing of 1.4 million Palestinians trapped in Rafah while the US was distracted by the Super Bowl. Murphy responded dismissively, saying “I understand– do you want a picture or not?” Tammy Murphy then proceeded to physically wrench a phone out of the hand of an attendee recording of the interaction. Governor Murphy refused to disband the commission and his aides continuously surrounded community members trying to talk to their governor as he walked away. The pro-Palestine attendees raised their voices so they could be heard by the Murphys and were aggressively dragged out of the event. Governor Murphy and Tammy Murphy had four to five large state troopers forcibly surround and manhandle the small Asian woman, to silence her out of the party as she denounced Governor Murphy and New Jersey-Israel Commission’s active participation in the genocide in Gaza.
The following morning, Governor Phil Murphy accidentally included a reporter from NJ Advance Media in his private texts to staff about the incident; “Ugly and ruined the event. We are white hot mad that this could have happened.” Governor Murphy calls “ugly” Asian community members at the first Lunar New Year party in the Governors’ mansion, and dismisses Governor Murphy’s and the New Jersey-Israel Commission’s role in genocide as having “ruined the event.”
The New Jersey-Israel Commission facilitated $1.72 billion in bilateral trade between New Jersey and Israel, which operate as “sister state,” with a New Jersey office opened in Tel Aviv in March 2023. The Commission has existed since 1989, creating agreements between New Jersey and Israeli universities and businesses, as well as direct foreign investment from genocidal interests into Jersey.
In 2017, Murphy went on record expressing disagreement with his running mate’s Sheila Oliver’s vote against legislation designed to undermine the international nonviolent Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign. Modeled after the use of the same tactic, BDS is designed to end Israeli Apartheid just as it brought down the South African Apartheid regime. The legislation obligates the State Investment Council to diverse state pension funds from any company participating in BDS. In a letter to the House Appropriations Committee opposing an amendment to the FY 2017 State and Foreign Operations Appropriations bill condoning state bills like the one Murphy supported, the ACLU wrote, “Such a penalty flies in the face of the First Amendment’s guarantee that the state should impose no law infringing on the right to speak freely and to associate with those of like mind”
Tammy Murphy has faced criticism for her evasive and ambiguous responses to questions about whether she supports a ceasefire in Gaza. In a November 27 commentary in New Jersey Monitor, Terrence T. McDonald wrote, “Now, I’m not saying that the circumstances surrounding a cease-fire are not complicated, but this is a major — potentially the major — issue facing the world right now. Someone who wants to be a U.S. senator should be able to tell us their opinion on it.”
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