El-Yateem’s Staff Speaks Disengenously About Councilman Gentile
Reverend Khader El-Yateem shows his lack of leadership when he allowed his staff to speak on his behalf for a newspaper article. El-Yateem’s field director, Kayla Santosuosso said to the Voices of NY:
“We had elected officials who, their strongest contribution to the community has been to, you know, limit the number of hookah bars that are in this neighborhood. We have our Republican congressman who is unabashedly supporting the Muslim ban unconditionally,” says Santosuosso, who is a former special projects consultant at the Arab American Association of New York.
No Kayla Santosuosso – it’s not okay that you minimize the work of Mr. Vincent Gentile, when Gentile is Bay Ridge!
The article has been out long enough that Rev. Khader El-Yateem should have issued an apology to Gentile by now. Pastor El-Yateem didn’t want hookahs in Bay Ridge, did he? (It probably doesn’t matter to him because he lives in Dyker Heights). Santosuosso highlighted Congressman Donovan’s support of the Muslim Ban, but failed to mention that Reverend Khader El-Yateem has never publicly spoken out against Mr. Donovan or even asked Mr. Donovan to come to Bay Ridge for a town hall meeting. If Rev. Khader El-Yateem is “this great leader in our community”, we would have seen him stand up for the people in this community and call Donovan and Golden to the table to talk about their support for Trump. While El-Yateem could have called Congressman Donovan for a Bay Ridge Task Force Meeting, he didn’t! Reverend El-Yateem has been silent.
When hookah bars were opening everywhere, people went to Councilman Gentile and he responded. In 2010, some people thought shishka in a hookah was safer than smoking. I learned this when my students researched it with doctors from Maimonides Medical Center. Even the research back then showed it was just as harmful as cigarette. In 2016, when Bay Ridge residents living near a hookah bar complained of smoke, Gentile intervened. In 2016, Gentile went for a ban on hookah bars. Now research shows that shishka is actually a lot worse than smoking. Gentile’s bill is well supported in Bay Ridge because teens believe hookah it is safe to use.
BTW, Reverend Khader El-Yateem looked pretty happy to attend Gentile’s recent event, so it is odd that he would allow his staff to speak so disingenuously about Councilman Gentile. El-Yateem should investigate why Gentile is loved in this community. If he wasn’t term-limited out, people would vote for Vinnie again. Maybe El-Yateem should see what Gentile is doing in Dyker Heights with El-Yateem’s neighbors who are fighting against illegal conversions.
FYI, Councilman Gentile is one of my favorite people. Gentile doesn’t know me, but I have found him to be a consistent advocate for this community, his neighbors, senior citizens and education. A few days ago, I wrote that Rev. Khader El-Yateem was a good person, I no longer feel that as it was unkind and at the very least unprofessional. I guess El-Yateem’s staff figures if they say enough bad things about everyone else, no one will notice that Reverend El-Yateem is silent about many things that happen in Bay Ridge and oh yeah that little thing they need to hide -> El-Yateem supports BDS (love all but hate for some) and wants to use the Bay Ridge Council seat to support the BDS.
Hugs,
marlene
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