Not On Our Dime submits petition to place anti-Israel referendum on May ballot
“We stand with our community, our elected officials and all those who reject efforts to sow division.”
Not On Our Dime, an anti-Zionist group, has submitted a petition to Allegheny County’s election division that, if approved by voters, would amend Pittsburgh’s Home Rule Charter and force the city to divest from doing business with Israel or any company that does business with the Jewish state.
The organization gathered more than 21,300 signatures — 9,000 more than the 12,459 signatures required for the referendum to be added to the May ballot.
The referendum faces several hurdles, including a review of the validity of the signatures gathered and possible legal challenges. If the referendum is passed, separate referendums approved by Pittsburgh City Council earlier this month — ordinances 1425 and 1426 — could render it illegal.
The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh is “deeply concerned” by the proposed anti-Israel referendum, which seeks to advance the “discriminatory and divisive Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions agenda in our city,” Jeff Finkelstein, the Federation’s president and CEO, said in a prepared statement.
The initiative, he said , is misleading, legally flawed and harmful to the city’s values of inclusivity and cooperation.
The Federation is working with the Beacon Coalition and StandWithUs to explore “all legal avenues to oppose this referendum, which unfairly targets the Jewish community and seeks to isolate Israel rather than foster meaningful dialogue and peace.”
“Pittsburgh has always been a place where diverse backgrounds come together to support one another,” Finkelstein continued. “We stand with our community, our elected officials and all those who reject efforts to sow division.”
Laura Cherner, Federation’s Community Relations Council director, said it’s not just the Jewish community that the referendum would harm.
“It has the potential to negatively impact the entire city,” she said. “The burden to address this harmful referendum should not just fall solely on the Jewish community. We hope that our partners and representatives in the public space will use their platforms to also amplify the harm of this referendum.”
Jeremy Kazzaz, executive director of the Beacon Coalition, said his organization is leading a review of the signatures collected by Not On Our Dime.
“We are just embarking on the process,” he said. “It takes time. We have trained a large number of volunteers. People in the community feel strongly about this.”
StandWithUs is partnering with the Federation to explore legal avenues available to oppose the referendum.
Julie Paris, StandWithUs’ Mid-Atlantic regional director, said that Not On Our Dime has singled out Israel and made false claims about the Jewish state.
The question that would be added to the May ballot reads:
“Shall the Pittsburgh Home Rule Charter be amended to align Pittsburgh’s finances with the City’s moral standards by: (1) establishing a financial policy to divert funds from governments engaged in genocide and apartheid — such as the state of Israel — and corporations doing business with them; (2) implementing investment policies with goals to reduce arms production and promote human dignity; and (3) increasing transparency of City business relationships and investments?”
A press release issued by Not On Our Dime does not specifically mention Israel, but says that it is attempting to prevent Pittsburgh from doing business with “any government actively committing genocide, apartheid or ethnic cleansing.”
Its Instagram account takes a more focused approach, though, saying the group wants “to divest our city from Israeli war crimes.”
Not On Our Dime worked with several other anti-Israeli organizations in gathering signatures and promoting the petition, including Students for Justice in Palestine at the University of Pittsburgh, the Pittsburgh Palestine Coalition, Pitt Apartheid Divest and the Steel City Antifascist League, which publishes calls for violence and violent imagery on its Instagram and Twitter accounts, as well as a separate hate-filled website.
A similar BDS effort was attempted at Pitt.
Students for Justice in Palestine tried to introduce a referendum asking university students if Pitt “should divest all financial holdings from companies enabling apartheid and genocide — including weapons manufacturers arming Israel.” It was ultimately rejected by the school’s Student Government Board.
Paris said the false claims of genocide “are part of a bigger picture to demonize and delegitimize Israel’s right to not only defend itself but simply to exist.”
She called the battle against the referendum a “critical battle” and noted that if the referendum passes, it will paralyze the city.
At a public hearing on City Council’s counter-referendums, Councilmember Erika Strassburger, District 8, read a partial list of companies the city would be forced to quit doing business with if Not On Our Dime’s referendum passed. That list included: Amazon, Apple, Caterpillar, City Bank, Coca Cola, Dell, General Electric, Google, Alphabet, HP, IBM, Intel, JP Morgan Chase, McAfee, McDonald’s, Micron, Microsoft, Nestle, Oracle, Pepsi, Qualcomm, Siemens and Toyota.
Paris noted that the city would also have to enact cost-prohibitive regulations to ensure it wasn’t doing business with companies that do business with Israel.
The City Controller’s office, under Rachael Heisler, would be tasked with much of that work.
Heisler said that the city remains very concerned about how the proposal would affect city finances and operations.
“We are consulting with officials across City government about what the potential consequences would be. We will continue to explore all of our options as this process moves forward and focus on doing what’s right for City taxpayers,” she said in an email.
Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey is also concerned about the effects the referendum would have on the city.
“As I have stated before, I have serious concerns about the effect that the ‘Not On Our Dime’ campaign’s proposed referendum would have on City government’s ability to conduct basic functions if it is placed on the ballot and ultimately approved by the voters,” he said in an email.
Regardless of how one views the intentions of the campaign, he said, “it is clear that the proposed change would bring nearly every function of City government grinding to a halt by prohibiting the City from doing business with global companies, from Microsoft to Ford, upon which we rely on to perform administrative functions and provide core services.”
He noted that the referendum is causing alarm in the Jewish community, while “acknowledging the apparent strength of feeling among our residents who want to intervene on behalf of Palestinians, and believe that most Pittsburghers share this sentiment, alongside a commitment to combatting antisemitism.”
He said he does not believe that amending the Home Rule Charter is the right forum for addressing these challenges.
“Ultimately, both the Not on Our Dime referendum and Bill 1425, which protects against discrimination based on race, religion, national origin or affiliation with any foreign nation or state, are matters that are likely to be placed before Pittsburgh voters. I respect the democratic process and trust that the voters will make their voices heard,” he said.
Not On Our Dime filed a similar anti-Israel petition in August 2024, which it withdrew after thousands of signatures were found to be invalid. PJC
David Rullo can be reached at drullo@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
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