Gary Ackerman

Gary Ackerman (1942-) is a U.S. Representative (D-New York), from the 5th Congressional District of New York. After graduating from college, he was a junior high school teacher for five years, then founded a weekly community newspaper called The Flushing Tribune.

Considered left of center, he had a 2008 0% rating from American Conservative Union and 100% from Americans for Democratic Action. He is involved in human rights groups, such as the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea.

Committees and Caucuses

• House Foreign Affairs Committee

• Congressional Internet Caucus

Issues

Foreign policy

Israel-Palestine Conflict

In January 2010, he disassociated himself from J Street for its support of a draft United Nations Security Council resolution criticizing Israel's settlements in the West Bank. "After learning of J-Street’s current public call for the Obama Administration to not veto a prospective UN Security Council resolution that, under the rubric of concern about settlement activity, would effectively and unjustly place the whole responsibility for the current impasse in the peace process on Israel, and—critically—would give fresh and powerful impetus to the effort to internationally isolate and delegitimize Israel.

"America really does need a smart, credible, politically active organization that is as aggressively pro-peace as it is pro-Israel. Unfortunately, J-Street ain’t it.”