Mamdani could revoke Adams' order aimed at stopping boycott or divestment from Israel

Chris Sommerfeldt, New York Daily News on Dec 4, 2025

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NEW YORK — Incoming Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Thursday did not rule out revoking an executive order issued by outgoing Mayor Eric Adams that threatens city government employees with disciplinary action if they take any official actions that “discriminate” against Israel or its citizens.

“The mayor is free to issue as many executive orders as he’d like with the less than 30 days that he has in office, and then we will be taking a look at every single one once we actually enter into City Hall,” Mamdani said at a news conference in Manhattan on Thursday afternoon.

“I have many a critique about the decisions and the polices of the current mayor’s administration, and I know that he has this next month to issue such additional executive orders,” Mamdani continued. “I look forward to reviewing each and every one of them.”

The order, issued by Adams late Wednesday while he was on a taxpayer-funded trip to New Orleans, prohibits city agency heads or other employees with contracting authority from taking any procurement or policy action that “discriminates against the State of Israel, Israeli citizens based on their national origin, or individuals or entities based on their association with Israel.”

The order also similarly directed the mayor’s appointees on the city government’s public pension funds to not take any actions “discriminating against the State of Israel, Israeli citizens based on their national origin, or individuals or entities based on their association with Israel.”

Speaking at an unrelated news conference on Staten Island Thursday morning, Adams said his order is explicitly about pushing back against Boycott, Divest and Sanction, an international movement that has gained increased attention amid the war in Gaza calling for governments around the world to pull investments out of Israel.

Mamdani, who’s set to become the city’s first Muslim mayor, has long been a supporter of the Boycott, Divest and Sanctions movement. He hasn’t said he will seek to direct the city government to take any BDS-related actions once he’s mayor, though.

Once he’s sworn in Jan. 1, Mamdani can immediately rescind Adams’ order.

The city’s public pension funds hold hundreds of millions of dollars in investments in Israeli government bonds and companies based in the country, including Elbit Systems, a defense contractor that supplies Israel’s military with weapons. It was not immediately clear how many contracts the city government’s various agencies hold, if any, with Israeli government entities or companies, but Adams said divestment is the wrong move for New York.

“I don’t think people realize the innovation that’s coming out of Israel how it’s helping the mother in Brownsville, the technology that Israel is creating is improving the life of a person who’s dealing with an ailment in the Bronx,” said Adams.

“Israel is a friend of America and New York City,” he added.

Adams, who dropped his reelection bid earlier this year amid fallout from his federal corruption indictment, issued the order as he’s actively trying to line up a post City Hall job. According to multiple sources familiar with the matter, he has been eyeing a job with an Israeli construction company, among other options, including a potential U.S. ambassadorship, for which he would need to be appointed by President Donald Trump.

On top of the BDS-related action, Adams signed a separate executive order that directed the New York Police Department to look into whether to modify the department’s policing of protests near houses of worship. That order specifically directs NYPD officials to look into whether protest-free “zones” can be established outside houses of worship.

That action comes after Adams criticized his NYPD leadership for what he saw as insufficient policing of a pro-Palestine protest outside Manhattan’s Park East Synagogue last month.

Adams has taken a number of other actions recently that appear aimed at stymying Mamdani’s incoming administration. That includes his push to appoint new members to the Rent Guidelines Board in an effort to block Mamdani’s pledge to enact a rent freeze on the city’s 2 million stabilized tenants.

Still, at his Staten Island appearance, Adams insisted he’s “not trying to overshadow” Mamdani. “I am trying to get out of the way,” he said.

(Josephine Stratman contributed to this report)