A Brooklyn lawmaker is quitting the Metropolis Council’s Ladies’s Caucus to protest its “anti-Israel” agenda and “woke” methods.
GOP Councilwoman Inna Vernikov, 40, slammed the 30-member caucus in a virtually 90-second video, first obtained by The Put up, for its refusal to sentence Hamas terrorists after the Oct. 7, 2023 bloodbath in Israel and for catering to far-left gender idealogues.
“How can I condemn and call out all these women organizations who’ve stayed completely silent [after the massacre] but continue sitting in a body that’s supposed to stand up for women’s rights, that’s supposed to stand against the abuse and rape and captivity of women, but cannot do that when it comes to Jewish women?” Vernikov says within the clip.
The video contains footage of younger, terrified Jewish ladies as they’re launched from Hamas captivity by masked males with weapons. Within the clip, Vernikov calls the Hamas captors “Jihadis.”
She additionally pointed to the caucus’ bylaws permitting council members to hitch who “identify as women” — leaving the door open to transgender organic males becoming a member of the group.
The bylaws additionally say the caucus “seeks to advance” each “women and women-identifying people’s rights.”
“This is a Women’s Caucus that obviously cannot agree on what a woman is,” she says within the video.
“I will not remain on a body that refuses to acknowledge objective truths and that will only stand up for women when it is politically expedient for them. I’m out!” she concludes.
Vernikov formally notified the caucus’ management on Friday she’s leaving the group.
The caucus’ co-chairs, Julie Menin (D-Manhattan) and Lynn Schulman (D-Queens), all however accused Vernikov of political grandstanding on Saturday.
“As was explained to Councilmember Vernikov, members decided to put out their own personal statements, given that some of us had actually visited with hostage families in Israel, which we felt was more personal and powerful,” each Jewish pols mentioned.
“It is unfortunate that the council member is seeking to politicize the lives of the hostages.”
Menin, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, and Schulman visited with households of hostages throughout a visit to Israel in 2024 and have issued quite a few statements in help of the hostages.
The Council’s Jewish Caucus has additionally left it as much as particular person members to launch statements on the Israeli hostages slightly than difficulty a joint assertion, mentioned its chairperson Erik Bottcher (D-Manhattan).
This isn’t the primary time Vernikov has left the Ladies’s Caucus.
Vernikov and fellow Republicans Joann Ariola and Vickie Paladino of Queens stepped down in 2022 over quite a lot of points, together with that they believed their opinions have been being ignored, however they later returned, officers mentioned.
Vernikov’s resignation leaves the caucus with 26 Democrats and simply three Republicans.
It’s membership topped out at 31 following an historic 2021 election when ladies — for the primary time — gained majority management of the Metropolis Council’s 51 seats.
The councilwoman – a longtime fervent defender of Israel — made headlines in October 2023 when she was caught on digital camera toting a firearm whereas observing an anti-Israel rally at Brooklyn School following Hamas’ assault.
Vernikov was later arrested on felony gun costs however prosecutors dropped the case once they couldn’t show the weapon was able to firing bullets.
The incident sparked her re-election a month later, some pundits declare, by galvanizing die-hard Israel supporters in her closely Jewish district, which incorporates Sheepshead Bay and different elements of southern Brooklyn.
