A school board member in Carmel claims he is the target of a smear campaign in response to backlash over comments he made about the war in the Middle East.

School board Trustee Jim Wise has become the center of a topic that is gaining polarized responses from people living in the area.

It all started in June when Wise attended a rally.

He says things got heated there while he and others were demanding an immediate cease-fire in Gaza.

A couple of weeks later, members of the school board passed a resolution condemning the remarks he made during that event.

Some board members claimed his comments were detrimental to the district's work of recognizing the need to address antisemitism.

Those concerns have now made their way up to the state level.

"Over the course of the last 24 hours, my office has received over 1,500 emails from residents of the Carmel School District. We thought it would be a good idea to urge him to step aside and let the Carmel School Board get back to business," says Assemblyman Anil Beephan, who serves New York's 105th District.

Beephan says he is also calling on the state education commissioner to remove Wise from office.

"The idea that we could weaponize a school board or the state Education Department to try and shut down views we oppose of is the most un-American thing I have ever heard," says Wise.

Wise, who is Jewish, says he believes this is all part of a smear campaign that started when he took a seat on the school board last year.

"This is very much a fake, grassroots campaign designed to impact local politics," says Wise.

The superintendent and the board released the following announcement: