Officials in Long Island’s Nassau County are investigating antisemitic flyers distributed by a white supremacist group in the Five Towns area.
The Five Towns, hamlets and villages on the south shore of Nassau, has a large Jewish population.
Officials said that the flyers, along with similar flyers found last month in nearby Rockville Centre and Oceanside, were the work of the Goyim Defense League, a right wing extremist group that has been accused of being behind previous antisemitic flyer campaigns, The Island360 reported.
The flyers claimed that Jews control the media and said, “You don’t support free speech? YOU ARE NOT AN AMERICAN.” It also claimed that a “Jewish mafia has hijacked our country.”
Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman confirmed that authorities will be examining security footage from businesses and houses along with license plate readers.
The flyers were condemned in a joint statement by County Supervisor Don Clavin, Councilman Anthony D’Esposito and Councilwoman Melissa Miller.
“Yet again a local community has been blanketed with hateful, antisemitic flyers that propagate lies and dangerous falsehoods targeting our Jewish neighbors,” they said. “This disgusting display of prejudice has no place in our hometown or anywhere in this country. We are outraged that such vile conspiracists think they have a platform to spread their evil message.”
New York State Senator Anna Kaplan urged unity to fight the spread of antisemitism.
“This latest antisemitic trash is just another example of the rampant antisemitism and hate being peddled by far-right extremists on Long Island,” she told the news outlet. “We must remain united as a community in standing against these shameful groups and their un-American beliefs.”