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NYC Mayoral Candidate Zohran Mamdani Refuses to Acknowledge Israel’s Right to Exist as a Jewish State
Zohran Mamdani. Photo: Ron Adar / SOPA Images via Reuters Connect
New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani on Thursday night declined to recognize Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state amid pressure from anti-Israel activists.
During an event hosted by the UJA-Federation of New York, moderators peppered Mamdani with questions regarding his views on Israel, the ongoing war in Gaza, and antisemitism. When pressed, Mamdani refused to support the notion that Israel should maintain its Jewish character and seemingly suggested that all of its citizens do not have equal rights.
“I believe that Israel has a right to exist with equal rights for all,” Mamdani said in a carefully worded response, sidestepping the issue of Israel’s existence specifically as a “Jewish state.”
Mamdani’s response came nearly a week after he said last Friday, “I do support [Israel’s] right to exist as a state,” in response to a question.
Following his comment last week, the mayoral candidate faced backlash from anti-Israel activists for not outright opposing the Jewish state’s right to exist.
While speaking on Tuesday at the launch party for Acacia Magazine, a new pro-Palestinian publication, an irate attendee screamed at Mamdani for voicing support for Israel’s existence when questioned by a reporter while simultaneously presenting himself as an advocate for the Palestinian cause. Mamdani also received widespread backlash from other anti-Israel activists for not taking a harsher stance against the Jewish state.
At Thursday night’s event for Democratic primary candidates running for New York City mayor, the moderators also pressed Mamdani on whether he would attempt to implement the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) initiative, which seeks to isolate Israel as a step toward its eventual elimination. Mamdani stood by his previous support for BDS and dismissed allegations that the movement is antisemitic.
“My support for BDS is consistent with my core politics, which is non-violence. And I think that it is a legitimate movement when you are seeking to find compliance with international law, and I think we have seen the Israeli government be out of compliance with international law,” Mamdani said.
Mamdani, a representative in the New York State Assembly, argued that Israel has violated international law through not only its defensive military operations in Gaza but also its presence in the West Bank.
He added that his support for the BDS movement against Israel is based on a “shared sense of humanity” and that those who condemn the boycott efforts against the Jewish state are engaging in “bigotry.”
In 2021, Mamdani issued public support for BDS, claiming that support for the anti-Israel movement is growing within New York City. “The tide is turning. The fight for justice is here. The moment is now,” he posted on X/Twitter. 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.”
The left-wing firebrand on Thursday also defended his previous promise to arrest Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if elected mayor. He accused Netanyahu of making military decisions while in New York that “killed many innocent people” and cited the International Criminal Court (ICC)’s arrest warrant against the Israeli leader.
In the famous photo Mamdani referred to, Netanyahu approved a strike on top leaders of Hezbollah — a terrorist group that operates out of southern Lebanon.
The moderators also grilled Mamdani for appearing on the podcast of Hasan Piker, a popular streamer who has defended the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel and argued that the mass rapes of Israeli women were justified. Mamdani defended his decision to appear on Piker’s podcast, saying that the Democratic Party has made “mistakes” by refusing to engage with popular internet personalities with controversial views. He dismissed criticism over his decision to appear on Piker’s podcast as mere political “purity” testing.
“I think it is part of a broader discussion about politics as a matter of purity when I think politics should also be an avenue to engage as many people as possible. And so, to me, I do not have any regrets of speaking to any interviewer, to any journalist, to any podcaster,” Mamdani said.
Piker has an extensive history of repudiating Israel as an “apartheid state” and defending atrocities committed against its civilians. In a 2024 livestream, Piker minimized sexual assaults committed against Israeli women at the hands of Hamas, saying “it doesn’t matter if rapes f—king happened on Oct. 7.” He has also defended violence from the Hamas and Houthi terrorist groups as legitimate “resistance” and said he doesn’t “have an issue with” Hezbollah, which had pummeled Israel with an unremitting barrage of missiles and rockets from southern Lebanon in the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7 attacks. He has also praised Yahya Sinwar, the later leader of Hamas, for his terrorism against Israel.
Mamdani’s political ascendance comes amid a spike in anti-Jewish hate crimes within New York City and across the country. On Wednesday, two employees of the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C. were gunned down in a targeted antisemitic terror attack.
New York City specifically has been ravaged by a surge in antisemitic incidents in the 19 months following the Oct. 7 onslaught. According to police data, Jews were targeted in the majority of hate crimes perpetrated in the city last year. 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.
Mamdani has made anti-Israel activism a cornerstone of his political career. A self-described democratic socialist, he has both advanced state legislation seeking to punish Israel and labeled the Jewish state’s defensive military operations in Gaza a “genocide.”
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, Mamdani called on New York city to cease sending funds to Israel, saying that “voters oppose their tax dollars funding a genocide.”
The post NYC Mayoral Candidate Zohran Mamdani Refuses to Acknowledge Israel’s Right to Exist as a Jewish State first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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New Poll: Majority of NYC Voters ‘Less Likely’ to Support Mamdani Over His Refusal to Condemn ‘Globalize the Intifada’
Zohran Mamdani. Photo: Ron Adar / SOPA Images via Reuters Connect
In a warning sign for the campaign of Democratic nominee for mayor of New York Zohran Mamdani, a majority of city voters in a new poll say the candidate’s hardline anti-Israel stance makes them less likely to vote for him.
In the survey of likely city voters conducted by American Pulse, 52.5 percent said Mamdani’s refusal to condemn the slogan “globalize the intifada” coupled with his backing of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement made them less likely to vote for him in November. Just 31% of city voters polled were more likely to support him because of these positions.
At the same time, a significant share of young New York City voters support Mamdani’s anti-Israel positioning, a striking sign of shifting generational views on Israel and the Palestinian cause.
Nearly half of voters aged 18 to 44 (46 percent) said the State Assembly member’s backing for BDS and “refusal to condemn the phrase ‘globalize the intifada’” made them more likely to support him.
Mamdani, a democratic socialist from Queens, has been under fire for defending “globalize the intifada,” a slogan many Jewish groups associate with incitement to violence against Israel and Jews. While critics argue it glorifies terrorism, supporters claim it’s a call for international solidarity with oppressed peoples, especially Palestinians. Mamdani has also voiced support for BDS, a movement widely condemned by mainstream Jewish organizations as antisemitic for singling out Israel.
The generational divide exposed by the poll comes amid a broader political realignment. Younger progressives across the country are increasingly critical of Israeli policies, especially in the wake of the Gaza war, and more receptive to Palestinian activism. But to many Jewish leaders, Mamdani’s rising support is alarming.
Rabbi David Wolpe, visiting scholar at Harvard University, condemned the phrase with a sarcastic analogy.
“‘Globalize the intifada’ is just a political slogan,” he said. “Like ‘The cockroaches must be exterminated’ was just a housing authority slogan in Rwanda.”
Jewish organizations have reported a surge in antisemitic incidents in New York and across the U.S. since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war last fall. The blending of anti-Zionist slogans with calls for “intifada,” historically linked to violent uprisings, has deepened fears among Jewish communities that traditional red lines are being crossed.
Whether this emerging coalition reshapes New York politics remains to be seen. However, the poll indicates that among younger voters, views that were once considered fringe are quickly moving into the mainstream.
The post New Poll: Majority of NYC Voters ‘Less Likely’ to Support Mamdani Over His Refusal to Condemn ‘Globalize the Intifada’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Report: Jews Targeted at June’s Pride Month Events
A Jewish gay pride flag. Photo: Twitter.
The research division of the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) released a report on Wednesday detailing incidents of hate against Jews which took place last month during demonstrations in celebration of LGBTQ rights and identity.
Incidents reported by the group include:
- At a Pride march in Wales, the activists Cymru Queers for Palestine chose to block the path and show a sign that said “Profiting from genocide,” an attempt to link the event’s sponsors — such as Amazon — to the war in Gaza.
- A Dublin Pride march saw the participation of the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign, which labeled Israel a “genocidal entity.”
- In Toronto at a late June Pride march, demonstrators again attacked organizers with a sign declaring, “Pride partners with genocide.”
CAM also identified a recurring narrative deployed against Israel by some far-left activists: so-called “pinkwashing,” a term which the Boycott, Divest, Sanctions (BDS) movement calls “an Israeli government propaganda strategy that cynically exploits LGBTQIA+ rights to project a progressive image while concealing Israel’s occupation and apartheid policies oppressing Palestinians.”
The report notes that at a Washington DC Pride event in early June Medea Benjamin, cofounder of activist group Code Pink and a regular of anti-war protests, wore a pair of goofy, oversized sunglasses and a shirt in her signature pink with the phrase “you can’t pinkwash genocide.”
Other incidents CAM recorded showed the injection of anti-Israel sentiment into Pride events.
A musical group canceled a performance at an interfaith service in Brooklyn, claiming the hosting synagogue had a “public alignment with pro-Israel political positions.” In San Francisco before the yearly Trans March, a Palestine group said in its announcement of its participation, “Stop the war on Iran and the genocide of Palestine, stop the war on immigrants and attacks on trans people.”
CAM notes that this “queers for Palestine” sentiment is not new, pointing to a 2017 event wherein “organizers of the Chicago Dyke March infamously removed participants who were waving a Pride flag adorned with a Star of David on the grounds that the symbol ‘made people feel unsafe.’”
In February, the Israel Defense Forces shared with the New York Post documents it had recovered demonstrating that Hamas had tortured and executed members it suspected of homosexuality and other moral offenses in conflict with Islamist ideology.
Amit Benjamin, who is gay and a first sergeant major in the IDF, said during a visit to New York City for Pride month that “All the ‘queers for Gaza’ need to open their eyes. Hamas kills gays … kills lesbians … queers cannot exist in Gaza.”
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IAEA pulls inspectors from Iran as standoff over access drags on
IAEA chief Rafael Grossi at the agency’s headquarters in Vienna, Austria, June 23, 2025. REUTERS/Elisabeth Mandl/File Photo
The UN nuclear watchdog said on Friday it had pulled its last remaining inspectors from Iran as a standoff over their return to the country’s nuclear facilities bombed by the United States and Israel deepens.
Israel launched its first military strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites in a 12-day war with the Islamic Republic three weeks ago. The International Atomic Energy Agency’s inspectors have not been able to inspect Iran’s facilities since then, even though IAEA chief Rafael Grossi has said that is his top priority.
Iran’s parliament has now passed a law to suspend cooperation with the IAEA until the safety of its nuclear facilities can be guaranteed. While the IAEA says Iran has not yet formally informed it of any suspension, it is unclear when the agency’s inspectors will be able to return to Iran.
“An IAEA team of inspectors today safely departed from Iran to return to the Agency headquarters in Vienna, after staying in Tehran throughout the recent military conflict,” the IAEA said on X.
Diplomats said the number of IAEA inspectors in Iran was reduced to a handful after the June 13 start of the war. Some have also expressed concern about the inspectors’ safety since the end of the conflict, given fierce criticism of the agency by Iranian officials and Iranian media.
Iran has accused the agency of effectively paving the way for the bombings by issuing a damning report on May 31 that led to a resolution by the IAEA’s 35-nation Board of Governors declaring Iran in breach of its non-proliferation obligations.
IAEA chief Rafael Grossi has said he stands by the report. He has denied it provided diplomatic cover for military action.
Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Thursday Iran remained committed to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
“[Grossi] reiterated the crucial importance of the IAEA discussing with Iran modalities for resuming its indispensable monitoring and verification activities in Iran as soon as possible,” the IAEA said.
The US and Israeli military strikes either destroyed or badly damaged Iran’s three uranium enrichment sites. But it was less clear what has happened to much of Iran’s nine tonnes of enriched uranium, especially the more than 400 kg enriched to up to 60% purity, a short step from weapons grade.
That is enough, if enriched further, for nine nuclear weapons, according to an IAEA yardstick. Iran says its aims are entirely peaceful, but Western powers say there is no civil justification for enriching to such a high level, and the IAEA says no country has done so without developing the atom bomb.
As a party to the NPT, Iran must account for its enriched uranium, which normally is closely monitored by the IAEA, the body that enforces the NPT and verifies countries’ declarations. But the bombing of Iran’s facilities has now muddied the waters.
“We cannot afford that … the inspection regime is interrupted,” Grossi told a press conference in Vienna last week.
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