Zohran Mamdani. Photo: Ron Adar / SOPA Images via Reuters Connect

Zohran Mamdani, one of the top contenders in the New York City mayoral race, on Tuesday condemned Israel for restarting war operations in the Gaza Strip, accusing the Jewish state of committing a “genocide” and citing Hamas-produced casualty statistics. 

“Israel’s renewed bombing of Gaza — funded by our tax dollars — has already killed more than 400 Palestinians in just a few hours, including scores of women and children. It is among the deadliest days of a genocide which has taken the lives of more than 50,000 civilians,” Mamdani said in a statement. “‘The Israeli government has chosen to give up on the hostages,’ an organization of Israeli families said this morning. The Trump administration must bring all of its pressure to bear on [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu to establish the ceasefire now.”

On Monday night, Israel resumed airstrikes targeting Hamas in Gaza under the directive of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose office said in a statement that the military action followed “Hamas’s repeated refusal to release our hostages, as well as its rejection of all of the proposals it has received from US presidential envoy Steve Witkoff and from the mediators.”

The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry claimed that around 400 Palestinians were killed from the initial Israeli airstrikes, although the ministry does not distinguish between terrorist combatants and civilians. Moreover, researchers have shown that casualty figures published by Gaza’s Hamas-run health authorities have been inflated to defame Israel.

Mamdani, a representative within the New York State Assembly and progressive firebrand, has made anti-Israel activism a cornerstone of his political career. Mamdani, a self-described democratic socialist, has both advanced state legislation seeking to punish Israel and labeled the Jewish state’s defensive military operations in Gaza a “genocide.”

​​Although Mamdani is considered a threat to win the New York City mayorship, his position in the race has slipped. Mamdani commands 8 percent of the vote among New Yorkers, good enough for third place, according to a poll by Quinnipiac conducted between Feb. 27-Mar. 3. Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo holds a commanding lead at 38 percent, per Quinnipiac. 

Comparatively, according to a poll conducted by Honan Strategy Group from Feb. 22-23, Mamdani previously sat in second place with 12 percent of the vote. 

In 2021, Mamdani issued public support for the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement —an initiative which seeks to economically and diplomatically isolate Israel iasthe first step to its eventual destruction. He claimed that support for the anti-Israel movement is growing within New York City, saying on X/Twitter that “the tide is turning. The fight for justice is here. The moment is now.”

That same year, he also called for prohibiting New York lawmakers from visiting Israel, asserting that “every elected [official] must be pressured to stand with Palestinians.”

In May 2023, Mamdani advanced the “Not on Our Dime! Ending New York Funding of Israeli Settler Violence Act,” legislation which would ban charities from using tax-deductible donations to aid organizations that work in the West Bank. Mamdani argued that the legislation would help the state fight against so-called Israeli “war crimes” against Palestinians. The socialist dismissed critics of the legislation, saying that his anti-Israel proposal is “​​in line with the sentiments of most New Yorkers.”

On Oct. 8, 2023, 24 hours following the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust, Mamdani published a statement condemning “Netanyahu’s declaration of war” and suggesting that Israel would use the terror attacks to justify committing a second “Nakba.” Many Palestinians and anti-Israel activists use the term “Nakba,” or “catastrophe,” to refer to the establishment of the modern state of Israel in 1948.

Mamdani then said that Israel can only secure its long-term safety by “ending the occupation and dismantling apartheid.”

Five days later, he further criticized Israel’s response to the Hamas-led massacres, saying that “we are on the brink of a genocide of Palestinians in Gaza right now.”

In January 2024, he called on New York City to cease sending funds to Israel, saying that “Voters oppose their tax dollars funding a genocide.”

In addition, Mamdani is a high-profile member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), a far-left political organization with critical views of Israel. Though the DSA has long opposed Israel, the organization has ramped up its pro-Hamas rhetoric during the ongoing war in Gaza. On Oct. 7, the organization issued a statement saying that Hamas’s massacre was “a direct result of Israel’s apartheid regime.” The organization also encouraged its followers to attend an Oct. 8 “All Out for Palestine” event in Manhattan.

In January 2024, the DSA issued a statement calling for an “end to diplomatic and military support of Israel.” Then in April, the organization’s international committee, DSA IC, issued a missive defending Iran’s right to “self-defense” against Israel. In addition, the socialist group slammed former US Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) over his vote in favor of replenishing Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system.

Mamdani’s political ascendance comes amid a spike in anti-Jewish hate crimes within New York City.

New York City has been ravaged by a surge in antisemitic incidents in the 17 months following the Oct. 7 massacre. According to police data, Jews were targeted as the victims in a majority of all hate crimes in the city last year.

Meanwhile, pro-Hamas activists have held raucous — and sometimes violent — protests on the city’s college campuses, oftentimes causing Jewish students to fear for their safety. New York City schools are also currently facing criticism for failing to protect Jewish and Israeli students from antisemitism.

The post NYC Mayoral Contender Cites Hamas-Produced Casualty Figures While Condemning Israel for Restarting Gaza Campaign first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Director-General of the Department of International Relations and Cooperation of South Africa Zane Dangor and South African Ambassador to the Netherlands Vusimuzi Madonsela talk at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), at the start of a hearing where South Africa requests new emergency measures over Israel’s operations in Rafah, in The Hague, Netherlands, May 16, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Yves Herman

A leading pro-Israel organization in South Africa has condemned the government’s “appalling misuse of taxpayer funds” to finance what it called a “politically motivated and baseless” case at the UN’s top court accusing the Jewish state of committing genocide in Gaza.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, the South African Zionist Federation (SAZF) denounced the government’s latest allocation of R37 million (approximately $2 million) to its case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), as reported by local media, bringing the total to R132 million (approximately $7 million) used for “ideological grandstanding while South Africa teeters on the brink of collapse.”

“At a time when South Africa is in the grip of an economic and social crisis — unemployment at a catastrophic 35 percent (60 percent among youth), a collapsing health-care system, load-shedding that has crippled the economy, and 2.3 million households without proper housing — this reckless waste is indefensible,” the statement read.

“Schools are in disrepair, crime is rampant, and corruption has bled the country dry — yet instead of addressing these urgent crises, the government is funneling desperately needed public funds into a foreign legal campaign designed to delegitimize Israel’s right to defend itself against those who openly call for its destruction,” SAZF continued.

Since December 2023, South Africa has been pursuing its case at the ICJ accusing Israel of committing “state-led genocide” in its defensive war against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in Gaza.

Israeli leaders have condemned the case as an “obscene exploitation” of the Genocide Convention, noting that the Jewish state is targeting terrorists who use civilians as human shields in its military campaign.

Meanwhile, South Africa’s Jewish community has, like the SAZF, lambasted the case as “grandstanding” rather than actual concern for those killed in the Middle Eastern conflict.

Last year, the ICJ ruled there was “plausibility” to South Africa’s claims that Palestinians had a right to be protected from genocide. However, the top UN court did not make a determination on the merits of South Africa’s allegations, which may take years to go through the judicial process, nor did it call for Israel to halt its military campaign.

Instead, the ICJ issued a more general directive that Israel must make sure it prevents acts of genocide. The ruling also called for the release of the hostages kidnapped by Hamas during the terrorist group’s massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

In its statement, SAZF said that the South Africa government “has deliberately misrepresented this ruling as a victory, using it to justify its ongoing legal assault on Israel while ignoring the reality that Hamas are the true perpetrators of genocide.”

“Rather than recovering looted billions or addressing the suffering of its own citizens, the South African government prioritizes global theatrics, aligning itself with terror groups over the urgent needs of its people,” the statement added.

Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists started the war in Gaza when they murdered 1,200 people and kidnapped 251 hostages during their invasion of southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

Israel responded with a military campaign aimed at freeing the hostages and dismantling Hamas’s military and governing capabilities in neighboring Gaza.

Last month, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order to “halt foreign aid or assistance” to South Africa partly in response to the country’s ICJ case and anti-Israel stance.

Trump’s executive order puts at risk not only $440 million in aid to South Africa but also tariff-free access to US markets under the African Growth and Opportunity Act, presenting a major challenge for the South African coalition government, which took power last year after the ruling African National Congress (ANC) lost its majority in parliament for the first time in South Africa’s post-apartheid democratic history.

In January, Cuba officially became the latest country to join South Africa’s genocide case against Israel, following Ireland, Nicaragua, Colombia, Mexico, Libya, Bolivia, Turkey, the Maldives, Chile, Spain, and “Palestine.”

The post South Africans Slam Government for Using Taxpayer Funds for ‘Politically Motivated’ Genocide Case Against Israel first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Families and supporters of Israeli hostages kidnapped during the deadly Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas gather to demand a deal that will bring back all the hostages held in Gaza, outside a meeting between hostage representatives and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in Jerusalem, Jan. 14, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ammar Awad

Freed Israeli hostages and families of those in captivity in Gaza reacted to news of Israel resuming military operations against Hamas as the ceasefire and hostage-release deal between them collapsed on Monday night.

“We heard from survivors who returned from hell, and the message was clear: We must immediately return to a ceasefire,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, the largest organization dedicated to the release of the hostages, wrote on X. “The lives of our loved ones hang by a thread and cannot endure much longer. After surviving months in captivity against all odds, they are now in critical danger. Only a deal can bring back all the hostages.”

Since Hamas’s attack on Oct. 7, 2023 — in which the Palestinian terrorist group led the massacre of 1,200 people and kidnapping of 251 hostages during their invasion of southern Israel — well over 100 hostages have been released through negotiated ceasefire deals, and the Israeli military has rescued a smaller number in special operations.

There are currently 59 hostages still in Hamas’s captivity in Gaza, and over half of them are believed to be dead.

In another post, the forum wrote that, at a news conference, the families of some hostages “warned that continued fighting would lead to more hostage deaths and urged an immediate ceasefire and return to negotiations to secure the release of all remaining hostages.”

Noa Argamani, who became famous on Oct. 7, 2023, after an image of her being kidnapped from the Nova Music Festival — where Hamas murdered hundreds of young people — and separated from her boyfriend, Avinatan Or, was seen widely. Argamani, who has been speaking across the United States to advocate for the release of the rest of the hostages since her rescue from Hapas captivity last year, shared a message this week about the end of the ceasefire.

“Fighting Resumes. Two words, and so many emotions inside. Suddenly, out of the silence, all hopes explode in an instant,” Argamani wrote. “Two words, but for the hostages inside, they mean explosions and noises that bring back the fear of dying.”

Argamani explained the hope she felt in captivity when she heard of the first ceasefire and hostage-release deal in November 2023. “Every day, I held on to that hope. I told myself there was no way I wouldn’t make it out alive.”

“But then, in a single moment,” she continued, “we started hearing the explosions again. Suddenly, all the dreams of going home, of hugging family and friends — shattered in an instant. The thought of seeing the light again felt so far away. One moment, the ceasefire was gone, and with it, the hope that I would get out of there alive.”

Argamani concluded: “I’m sorry, Avinatan. I’m sorry that for 529 days, you haven’t seen daylight. I’m sorry that you were left behind. We must save them! Too many hostages who were taken alive — were murdered in captivity. We must save every living soul! This is our mission. We cannot leave them behind.”

Similarly, Yarden Bibas, who was held hostage for over a year and whose wife and children — Shiri, Kfir, and Ariel — were all murdered by Hamas, posted on Facebook against the decision to renew the war.

“Israel’s decision to return to fighting brings me back to Gaza, to the moments where I heard the sounds of explosions around me and where I feared for my life as I was afraid the tunnel where I was being held would collapse,” Bibas wrote. “My wife and children were kidnapped alive and brutally murdered in captivity. The military pressure endangers the hostages while an agreement brings them home.”

“We must stop the fighting and bring everyone home first of all,” he concluded.

However, not all hostages and hostage families oppose revamping the war effort.

The Tikva Forum — a right-wing alternative to the main hostage family organizations — wrote in a statement that it fully supports resuming fighting against Hamas, arguing it is only intense pressure on the terrorist group that will result in the hostages being freed.

“The past few weeks have proven what we have been saying all along – Hamas will never return all the abductees voluntarily,” the Tikva Forum wrote. “Only massive military pressure, a complete blockade that includes a power and water cut, and the occupation of territories that will lead to Hamas’s collapse, will lead it to beg for a ceasefire and a deal that will return all the abductees together, in one fell swoop.”

It concluded, “If the attack that began [Monday] continues with force and without interruption, we will be able to bring all our loved ones home in one fell swoop, on one bus.”

The post Freed Israeli Hostages, Families of Captives React to Collapse of Gaza Ceasefire first appeared on Algemeiner.com.