Democratic socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani is being accused of spewing antisemitic tropes — after he falsely claimed taxpayers were footing the bill for New York lawmakers’ trips to Israel.
Jewish advocates railed that the Queens state Assembly member was insinuating Jewish pols were swindling New Yorkers to benefit Israel at their expense.
“The danger that Mamdani poses to Jewish freedom in New York City is palpable,” fumed Queens Councilman Rory Lancman, a senior counsel at the non-profit Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law.
Mamdani, 33, made the bogus claim in recently resurfaced video from a May 11, 2021 pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel protest, where he also led chants of “BDS” – supporting the economic boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against the Jewish state.
“We have elected officials paid for trips to Israel,” he said in the clip posted on his Facebook page, which came back to light Sunday — hours before the Salute to Israel Day parade in Manhattan.
“They are going there paid for by your tax dollars,” Mamdani said.
“They show up at the Israel Day parade and they say, ‘We stand in solidarity,’” he went on. “We want to let them know that there are three letters that we have as an answer to what is happening in Palestine. It’s BDS.”
But the trips taken by state legislators and city council members are sponsored and paid for by the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York via philanthropic dollars, said JCRC CEO Mark Treyger, the grandson of Holocaust survivors.
He called Mamdani’s inaccurate claim “insulting and deeply offensive,” and slammed the lefty pol’s run for mayor as “one the most divisive citywide campaigns in modern New York history.”
“Many Jewish New Yorkers are still outraged that Mamdani spent hours sipping espresso with hate influencer Hasan Piker, who has referred to Jews as bloodthirsty pig dogs,” Treyger said, referring to an interview Mamdani did with the controversial left-wing Twitch streamer.
Lancman, of the non-profit human rights group Brandeis Center, alleged that Mamdani was peddling antisemitism under the guise of his pro-Palestinian advocacy.
“Mamdani’s hatred of the Jewish state and Jewish self-determination is deep-rooted antisemitism, allowing his advocacy to seamlessly blend anti-Israelism with antisemitic tropes — whether it’s that Israel is the reason America isn’t spending enough on affordable housing, or that Jews are stealing taxpayer money to fund trips to Israel,” Lancman told The Post.
Ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the Democratic frontrunner for mayor, was asked on Bari Weiss’ podcast Tuesday whether he thought Mamdani was antisemitic.
He stopped short of saying that.
“I’m being kind. Antisemite. You have to look into somebody’s soul and look at their motivation. But the position he has taken vis a vis Israel is radically hostile,” Cuomo said.
Mamdani is running second behind Cuomo, 67, in recent Democratic mayoral primary polls, and even leading among voters under 45.
The Mamdani campaign declined to directly respond to the accusation that he was peddling an antisemitic trope by saying lawmakers were soaking up taxpayer dollars to visit Israel.
“Zohran is committed to combating antisemitism—including through the largest fiscal commitment to hate crime prevention of any candidate—and making this city safe and affordable for every New Yorker,” said Mamdani campaign spokesman Andrew Epstein.
Last week, Mamdani drew flack for refusing to sign onto a pair of resolutions recognizing Israel and the Holocaust. Critics ripped the mayoral hopeful as having “no business representing the largest Jewish community outside of Israel.”
He said he voted for the Holocaust resolution.
Mamdani also has received the endorsement of anti-Israel ex-“Squad” Rep. Jamaal Bowman.
The assemblyman previously introduced the controversial “Not On Our Dime Act” that would bar New York non-profits from bankrolling any groups involved with West Bank settlements.
His father, Mahmood Mamdani, went even further, and called for the end of the Jewish state.
“The Palestinian challenge is to persuade the Jewish population and the world … the longtime security of a Jewish homeland in historic Palestine requires the dismantling of the Jewish state,” Mahmood Mandani said during a 2014 speech at Columbia. “Jews can have a homeland in historic Palestine, but not a state.”
The ranked-choice primary is June 24. Early voting is scheduled to begin June 14 and will go for nine days prior to the election.
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