Should nominee’s comments on Israel disqualify him from Kansas City zoning board?

Kansas City Councilman Nathan Willett called on Mayor Quinton Lucas Monday night to withdraw an appointment to a city board because his nominee suggested in a social media post that Israel is “a regime with genocidal intentions.”

Willett, who recently began his first term representing the 1st District, called the statement by Jaz Hays deeply offensive and not representative of the values of Willett’s constituents in his Northland district.

Hays’ post Monday on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, came three days after his proposed appointment as an alternate member of the board of zoning adjustment was announced on the agenda of city council committee that meets at 1 p.m. Tuesday.

At the meeting, his name and the name of another alternate nominee were removed from the resolution recommending their appointments. Lucas offered no explanation and said the matter of alternate appointments will be taken up later. It was unclear whether Hays would be one of those appointees.

“The comment made by Emerson “Jaz” Hays mischaracterizes one of our nation’s strongest allies and spews up more hatred towards the Jewish Community and Israel,” Willett wrote in a letter to Lucas that Willett posted on his Facebook page Tuesday morning.

He described Hays’ comment as antisemitic and said it should disqualify him to be an unpaid volunteer member of the zoning board because “serving on one our city’s boards or commissions comes with great standards.

What sparked Willett’s letter was Hays’ response to a posting on X that contained a Sky News video of Israel’s defense minister ordering a total blockade of Gaza in response to the attack on Israel by Hamas terrorists based in Gaza. Hundreds of Israeli civilians were murdered or taken hostage.

Defense minister Yoav Gallant said Monday that the blockade would leave the Gaza Strip’s 2 million people with “no electricity, no food and no fuel.”

The person who posted the video called that “a war crime.”

In response, Hays noted that Gallant called Israel’s adversaries in Gaza “human animals.”

Hays then went onto write that “Biden is sending weapons to a regime with genocidal intentions. The only winners will be the weapons manufacturers.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has long been criticized for its hard-line stance toward Gaza and the Palestinian West Bank. The United States provides Israel more than $3 billion in military assistance every year, according to The New York Times.

Hays did not immediately respond to three requests for comment. He is listed in state records as one of the organizers of KC Tenants Power, the political wing of KC Tenants, a group that advocates for affordable housing and the rights of renters.

Lucas had no immediate comment.