A group of Bronx lawyers blasted a scathing anti-Israel proclamation from the union for Big Apple public defenders and Legal Aid Society lawyers.
The Bronx Independent Lawyers for Justice, a newly formed group of at least 45 private attorneys, said they are “outraged” by the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys, Local 2325 of the United Auto Workers for its “antisemitic and historically inaccurate position” in a controversial proclamation approved last year.
“We were collectively outraged by the bigoted and antithetical position based on revisionist history,” veteran Bronx criminal lawyer Marvin Raskin said Sunday.
“We were concerned that there is a consensus that the defense bar in Bronx county is part of this biased rant by the union,” Raskin said. “We were concerned that that may permeate the public’s mindset.”
The group, barely two weeks old, has also raised more than $8,000 to support the American Friends of Magen David Adom, a nonprofit that raises funds for Israeli ambulance and emergency services.
In a statement released Sunday, the group called the union declaration “Hamas propaganda.”
“Our state and city representatives should not award taxpayer money to fund defense organizations that outwardly discriminate against and disparage those of any region or nationality,” it said.
“These organizations are trying to enlist the wider Bronx population, which uses their legal services to condemn Israel and the American Jewish community,” the statement said. “We categorically reject the antisemitism and revisionist history propaganda disseminated by the representatives of city and state-funded public defenders.”
The Local 2325 proclamation, initially released on Oct. 20, said lawyers in the public defender firms “vehemently oppose the decades-long Israeli occupation and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people.”
The document stemmed from Israel’s counter-offensive in the Gaza Strip following the sneak attack on the Jewish State by radical Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7, which left dead 1,200 Israelis — nearly all of them civilians — while hundreds of others were kidnapped.
A vote on the proclamation was tabled after a group of Legal Aid attorneys filed a lawsuit to block it, but it was ultimately approved by a vote of 1,067-570, the union announced on Dec. 19.
In the weeks since the private attorneys who now make up the Bronx Independent Lawyers for Justice said they decided it was time to speak out and denounce the union’s screed.
“We feel what they did was really outrageous and out of line as professionals,” veteran criminal attorney Michael Dailey said of the union on Sunday.
“We could debate the long-term conflict between the Palestinians and Israel,” he said. “But even if we were to say, ‘Yes, Israel is an apartheid state, they have oppressed the Palestinians — all of that. Would that justify what Hamas did on Oct. 7?
“I think the answer is a resounding no, it does not justify it.”
The proclamation was issued by the union’s local chapter, not the larger union. Local 2325 represents lawyers at 29 different public law offices, including the Legal Aid Society and Bronx Public Defenders.
The Legal Aid Society has denounced and condemned the proclamation.
Several society lawyers have also reached out to The Post in recent weeks to denounce the union.
Likewise, the Bronx Defenders released a statement in November distancing the firm from the pro-Hamas proclamation, saying it “did not approve the union’s statement and played no part in the drafting or publication of the union’s statement.”
Officials at the union could not immediately be reached for comment on Sunday.