Zohran Mamdani, the presumptive Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City, has come under attack for what his chief primary rival, former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, described as extreme views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. After Mr. Mamdani’s strong performance in the primary on Tuesday, that charge was quickly echoed by other backers of Israel, including Republican allies of President Trump.
Some, including Representative Elise Stefanik of New York, have even accused him of antisemitism and support for terrorists.
Mr. Mamdani has emphatically denied those accusations and has been defended by a long list of Jewish supporters, including Brad Lander, the city comptroller who cross-endorsed Mr. Mamdani in the primary.
But Mr. Mamdani is deeply critical of Israel, accusing it of committing apartheid and genocide in Gaza and declining to say it should be a Jewish state, instead endorsing equal rights for all religious and ethnic groups there. He has also expressed support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, which calls for governments, consumers and investors to cut financial ties with Israel in protest of its treatment of Palestinians.
Those stances were once seen as politically risky in New York, which is home to the largest Jewish population outside Tel Aviv.
But that has changed in recent years because of a combination of factors, including a growing alienation from Israel among some young American Jews, a sharp rightward shift in Israeli politics, and Israel’s conduct in Gaza and elsewhere. In November, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and Yoav Gallant, the country’s former defense minister, accusing them of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Mr. Netanyahu’s office has described those accusations as “absurd and false.”
Mr. Mamdani’s views on Israel became a focal point of the primary in part because of the sharp contrast between him and Mr. Cuomo, a staunch supporter of Israel.
Their divergent positions were on stark display in a debate on June 4, when the candidates were asked which foreign country they would visit first after becoming mayor. Mr. Cuomo said he would visit Israel. Mr. Mamdani said he would stay in New York.
One of the moderators then asked Mr. Mamdani whether he believed in Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. (The population of Israel is about 20 percent non-Jewish, made up mostly of Palestinian citizens of Israel and other Arabic speakers.)
Mr. Mamdani replied that he believed “that Israel has a right to exist as a state with equal rights.” Mr. Cuomo quickly jumped in to exclaim: “He said he won’t visit Israel!”
Last week, Mr. Mamdani drew criticism when he declined to condemn the pro-Palestinian slogan “globalize the intifada” on a podcast aimed at Gen Z audiences that is hosted by The Bulwark, a conservative anti-Trump news site.
Palestinians and their supporters have called the phrase a rallying cry for liberation, but many Jews see it as a threatening call to violence against Jews around the world. The phrase, which contains the Arabic word for “uprising,” alludes to Palestinian rebellions, including violent attacks, against Israel in the 1980s and 2000s.
During the interview, Mr. Mamdani said he was not “comfortable with banning the use of certain words,” especially because the phrase “globalize the intifada” means different things to different people.
For him, he said, the phrase reflected “a desperate desire for equality and equal rights in standing up for Palestinian human rights.” But he said fighting antisemitism would be a focus for him as mayor, and he pledged to increase funding for hate crime prevention by 800 percent.
Mr. Mamdani aired his views again before Primary Day in a joint appearance with Mr. Lander on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.” Asked if he believed Israel had the right to exist, Mr. Mamdani said, “Like all nations, I believe it has a right to exist and a responsibility also to uphold international law.”
But he said he knew there were “many New Yorkers with whom I have disagreements about the Israeli government’s policies, and also there are many who understand that’s a disagreement still rooted in shared humanity.”
Mr. Lander jumped in, telling Mr. Colbert that “Jewish New Yorkers and Muslim New Yorkers are not going to be divided from each other” and that “no mayor is going to be responsible for what happens in the Middle East.”
Mr. Mamdani then expanded on his view that Israel had committed war crimes, and cited Amos Goldberg, an Israeli historian of the Holocaust who has accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza.
“The conclusions I have come to, they are the conclusions of Israeli historians like Amos Goldberg; they are echoing the words of an Israeli prime minister like Ehud Olmert, who said just recently, what we are doing in Gaza is a war of devastation, it is cruel, it is limitless, it is criminal killing of civilians,” Mr. Mamdani said. “These are the conclusions I have come to.”
Liam Stack is a Times reporter who covers the culture and politics of the New York City region.
The post Mamdani Has Long Criticized Israel. His Opponents Attack Him for It. appeared first on New York Times.