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Just more than 17 minutes into the Oct. 24 meeting, the hackers interrupted Mayor Hector Lora praising the city's police department (scroll for video).
"Jews did 9/11. Israel did 9/11. Jews [unintelligible]. Shut up [racial slur]. You're a [racial slur]. Alright, so when are we going to put these Jews in these..." The mic cuts out.
Passaic's Mayor and Council reflects the city's diverse population, being comprised of Orthodox Jewish, Latino, and Black members.
Officials request the hackers be muted. Again, they interrupt.
"F— Jews. Go back to Africa. [Racial slur] repeated."
The comments come in the midst of a war between Hamas and Israel, spawned by the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that killed more than 1,300 Israeli citizens.
Lora later addressed the discriminatory terms and hateful, antisemitic images that the hijackers put on the screens while he was speaking, noting he didn't immediately understand what was happening as he was speaking.
"I want to thank our IT and inform those watching publicly that we will not tolerate any words of disrespect, anything that would in any way convey messages of hate... racism, going against people's faiths, practices, beliefs," the mayor said.
"Perhaps some of my colleagues were not aware or did not hear but I wanted to make sure we address it immediately... we reject and denounce all of those comments and images.
"On behalf of our city, for any of the young people that are watching or any of the residents, our sincerest apologies that you were exposed to such vitriol hate ignorance and discrimination."
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