New York City gives $500k to Arab-American Israel critic

An Arab-American activist who was at the centre of a Palestine-related Twitter feud with a US legislator will receive over $500,000 for her charity organisation from the city of New York.

Brooklyn-born Linda Sarsour, who runs the Arab Association of New York, will receive part of a $10 million allocation from the Mayor's Fund to Advance New York. The money will be distributed to a total of 14 groups, and will go towards the integration of mental health programmes in the recipient charities' activities.

Sarsour, who is a close ally of NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio, drew US media attention last year when she became involved in a Twitter spat about a photograph posted on her social media account.

The photo depicted a Palestinian child preparing to throw a stone at Israeli soldiers, which Sarsour captioned "the definition of courage".

Twitter Post

The tweet caught the attention of Queens City Councilman Rory Lancman, who replied with "No, the definition of barbarism."

Lancman's response opened the floodgates for a tirade of anti-Muslim and anti-Arab tweets from other users that then followed.

Twitter Post

The feud lasted a number of days, with the head of the Arab Association commenting "The Zionist trolls are out to play. Bring it. You will never silence me."

Drawing upon the comments made during the online argument, some news outlets have used Sarsour's support for her country of origin as a point of criticism, with one right-wing US website even describing her as a "hate-filled anti-American Islamic supremacist".

The Arab Association of New York, which supports Arab-Americans and new Arab immigrants to "become active members of society", was taken over by Sarsour in 2005 when its former executive director, Basma Atweh, was killed in a car accident.

While heading the association, Sarsour has also campaigned on various human rights issues, including the ending of the New York Police Department's spying on Muslims, and has been described by the New York Times as "a potential - and rare Arab-American - candidate for office".