Letter to the editor: Not on Our Dime

As a Jewish resident of Lawrenceville and a member of the steering committee of Not on Our Dime, I would like to laud Pittsburgh City Council member Erika Strassburger and her colleagues for introducing legislation making it illegal to discriminate against anyone on the basis of race, religion, national origin or association with foreign nations. Obviously, this is something we can all agree should not be legal.

I am mystified, of course, that anyone thinks that this has anything at all to do with the Not on Our Dime legislation, which prohibits the city from doing business with anyone on the basis of their engagement in genocide, ethnic cleansing or apartheid, all of which the state of Israel is engaged in at present. The propensity to commit these crimes, all of which are already illegal under U.S. and international law, is unrelated to people’s race, religion, national origin or association with foreign nations, which is why there are so many Jewish people like myself organizing with Not on Our Dime.

I urge that all Pittsburghers vote both for Strassburger’s legislation when it appears on the ballot in May, and also that they sign our extremely urgent petition to put the Not on Our Dime legislation on the ballot at the same time.

Kenneth Mostern

Lawrenceville