New York City deputy mayor for communications Fabien Levy accused the Washington Post of pushing an “antisemitic trope” about Jewish people, but an insider at the paper objected to that notion.
The Post on Thursday published an article, “Business titans privately urged NYC mayor to use police on Columbia protesters, chats show,” that focuses on high-powered executives urging New York City Mayor Eric Adams to shut down anti-Israel protests that have plagued the Ivy League campus. The paper reported that a WhatsApp chat filled with wealthy Americans who support Israel arranged a Zoom call with Adams to discuss pressuring Columbia leadership into letting police “handle protesters.”
But when the Post asked the mayor’s office for comment, Levy provided a statement saying Columbia leadership asked for police to step in and “any suggestion that other considerations were involved in the decision-making process is completely false.”
“The insinuation that Jewish donors secretly plotted to influence government operations is an all too familiar antisemitic trope that the Washington Post should be ashamed to ask about, let alone normalize in print,” Levy added, which the Post included in the report.
A Post insider baffled by the statement told Fox News Digital that the paper regularly covers wealthy and powerful people who try to use their influence, regardless of their race or religion.
The Post did not mention the religion of the WhatsApp chat participants.
The chat included ex-Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, Dell founder and CEO Michael Dell and hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, among others, according to the Post.
A Washington Post spokesperson declined comment on the deputy mayor’s statement.
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Levy continued his criticism on social media.
“This story is even more offensive than even initially described to us,” he wrote.
“@washingtonpost & others can make editorial decisions to disagree with the decisions by universities to ask the NYPD to clear unlawful encampments on campuses, but saying Jews ‘wielded their money & power in an effort to shape American views’ is offensive on so many levels,” Levy continued.
Last month, a mob of anti-Israel agitators barricaded the doors and windows of the Hamilton Hall building on Columbia’s campus. They broke glass and committed other acts of vandalism, confronted maintenance workers and waved a Palestinian flag from the roof, before embattled President Nemat Shafik had the New York Police Department clear them out in scenes that played out on national television on April 30.
A Columbia University faculty group has since passed a “no confidence” resolution against Shafik.
Fox News Digital’s David Rutz and Gabriel Hays contributed to this report.
