A NYC manufacturer that supplies drones to Israel to monitor the Gaza Strip border was booted from the city-owned Brooklyn Navy Yard six weeks after pro-Palestine Mayor Zohran Mamdani took office.
The Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corp. — whose board members serve at the pleasure of the mayor and manage the 300-acre industrial park — opted not to renew its lease with Easy Aerial, Councilman Lincoln Restler (D-Brooklyn) gloated on X Thursday.
“This public asset should not be leasing space to companies producing drones that are being transformed into weapons of war,” he said.
The company has long been the target of protests outside the former Navy shipyard, including by a group called “Demilitarize Brooklyn Navy Yard” that demanded the board evict tenants that assist Israel.
State Assemblyman Kalman Yeger (D-Brooklyn), a staunch Zionist, said the decision to boot Easy Aerial is foolish.
“Chasing good jobs out of New York because Mr. Mamdani and his friends hate Jews is probably not a very good economic development program,” he said.
Easy Aerial’s exodus from the Fort Greene side of the industrial park illustrates the change in philosophy at City Hall since Mamdani was sworn in as mayor on Jan. 1.
Former Mayor Eric Adams, a retired ex-cop and avid Israel supporter, was so impressed with a joint presentation by Easy Aerial and Tel Aviv-based Blue White Robotics at a NYC-Israel Chamber of Commerce event in 2022 that he once mulled using a mini-army of their drones to fight crime in the Big Apple, The Post previously reported.
Besides assisting the Israel Defense Forces with border monitoring, Easy Aerial also has a longstanding relationship with the US Air Force and other federal agencies, and its spies-in-the-sky have been used to monitor suspicious activity along the Mexican border.
Its high-profile work also includes Super Bowl security.
Ivan Stamatovski, who heads Easy Aerial, did not return messages. Ido Gur, another co-founder no longer involved with the company, said he found the Navy Yard’s decision “upsetting” but declined further comment.
The Mayor’s Office did not return messages.
When asked if Israel-Palestine politics played a role in its decision, BNYDC spokesperson Claire Holmes said the non-renewal was “for business reasons related to operational and campus compliance matters. Like any landlord, we evaluate renewals based on adherence to lease terms and campus policies.”
