A group of New York legislators recently put forth a bill that would ensure the state government can’t use public money to fund human rights abuses that have been found illegal under international law. The idea seems straightforward — why would government dollars be used to fund illegal activities?

In a sensible world, the principles set out in “Not on Our Dime,” a New York State Assembly bill, introduced by socialist assemblymember Zohran Kwame Mamdani and cosponsored by fellow socialist assemblymembers Sarahana Shrestha, Phara Souffrant Forrest, and Marcela Mitaynes, would be anodyne and barely need saying. The legislation prohibits nonprofit organizations from supporting the illegal activities of Israeli settlements in the occupied territories, including violence by Israelis against Palestinians, forced eviction of Palestinians from the area, and destruction or expropriation of Palestinian homes or lands.

“We don’t want our hard-earned money to kill anyone or wreck their homes” should be a statement of the obvious, particularly in a state as progressive as New York. But the bill’s introduction was met with immediate denunciation by establishment Democrats in the assembly, who called it “a ploy to demonize Jewish charities with connections to Israel . . . only introduced to antagonize pro-Israel New Yorkers and further sow divisions within the Democratic Party.” Senate and Assembly leadership said firmly that they would never allow the bill to pass.