Boston city councilor Flynn took 'fact-finding' trip to Israel

Boston City Councilor Ed Flynn is just back from a five-day trip to Israel with a delegation of American leaders.

He said he was visiting the country in the wake of the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas. The trip cost $21,000, according to an ethics filing, and was sponsored by a nonprofit affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a pro-Israel lobbying group in Washington D.C.

The nonprofit, the American Israel Education Foundation, often hosts politicians on trips to Israel. A draft itinerary of the trip listed "war briefings," meetings with wounded soldiers and a kibbutz visit.

In an interview Thursday afternoon with WBUR, Flynn said he was one of 15 local leaders on the trip. "It’s a very difficult time in Israel. But what I also saw is the resiliency of the army, the people," he said, "the everyday workers doing whatever they can as part of the war effort."

In an opinion piece published early Thursday in the Boston Herald, Flynn called the trip a "fact-finding mission" and wrote, "I have seen the unspeakable horror of the deadly Oct. 7, 2023 attacks by Hamas terrorists on innocent men, women and children in Israel." He said the way those attacks violently upended a peaceful gathering reminded him of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings, and called on the City Council to accept a $13.3 million federal counter-terrorism grant that the body had failed to approve in a 6-6 vote in December.

The council took the matter up again Wednesday but didn't vote on it because two councilors called for hearings instead. If they had voted, Flynn would have missed it. The council has come under pressure from Congressman Jake Auchincloss, a Newton Democrat, as well as Democratic state Sen. Nick Collins of South Boston, to accept the grant.

In his op-ed, Flynn wrote that the atrocities committed in Israel "can happen again anywhere, including Boston." He said he visited wounded Israeli soldiers and in briefings reviewed photos and videos of the war that were "scenes from hell."

Last year, when he was council president, Flynn called for a resolution in support of Israel and in opposition to Hamas. Councilor Tania Fernandes-Anderson advocated for a resolution calling for a ceasefire. Neither proposal was successful.

Flynn, a retired member of the U.S. Navy, reported meeting with members of the Israeli parliament, military leaders, heads of non-governmental groups, as well as academics and journalists.

In a statement, Flynn said, "We must continue to stand with our Jewish American neighbors and call out and denounce antisemitism when we see it.”

Flynn filed a travel disclosure on the trip with Boston's City Clerk, as required, on Jan. 12.

This story was updated after WBUR obtained a copy of Flynn's ethics filing and after an interview with Flynn.