NEW YORK — Declaring “Tonight, we made history,” 33-year-old Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani claimed victory Tuesday night in the city’s hotly contested Democratic mayoral primary, becoming the presumptive nominee and front-runner to be New York City’s first Muslim mayor.
With 93% of the ballots tallied, Mamdani led the pack with 43.5% of the vote, pulling ahead of former Governor Andrew Cuomo, who had been widely considered the frontrunner until recent weeks. Cuomo conceded after trailing at 36.4%, acknowledging the insurgent candidate’s unexpected surge.
“I will be your Democratic nominee for the mayor of New York City,” Mamdani told a jubilant crowd of supporters.
While Mamdani’s campaign has focused heavily on economic issues, such as the city’s spiraling grocery prices—proposing a publicly owned grocery chain to drive down costs—it is his record on Israel and statements about Jewish issues that have ignited a firestorm of controversy throughout the race.
Despite his efforts to center the campaign around bread-and-butter concerns, Mamdani’s long history of anti-Israel activism has drawn deep criticism from Jewish organizations, elected officials, and concerned citizens alike.
On October 8, 2023—just one day after Hamas launched its bloody massacre in southern Israel—Mamdani issued a public statement condemning Israel while avoiding any direct criticism of Hamas.
“I mourn the hundreds of people killed across Israel and Palestine in the last 36 hours. Netanyahu’s declaration of war, the Israeli government’s decision to cut electricity to Gaza, and Knesset members calling for another Nakba will undoubtedly lead to more violence and suffering in the days and weeks to come. The path toward a just and lasting peace can only begin by ending the occupation and dismantling apartheid,” Mamdani wrote.
It was only later that he described the October 7 attacks as a “horrific war crime,” adding, “My support for Palestinian liberation should never be confused for a celebration of the loss of civilian life.”
The state legislator has also become known for defending the phrase “Globalize the Intifada,” a slogan widely perceived as a call for expanding the violent anti-Israel uprisings of the early 2000s. When questioned about its use, Mamdani offered a historical framing: “The very word [intifada] has been used by the Holocaust Museum when translating the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising into Arabic, because it’s a word that means struggle.”
This defense sparked widespread outrage. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum issued a stern rebuke, calling Mamdani’s invocation of the Holocaust “outrageous” and “especially offensive to survivors.”
In a follow-up statement, Mamdani doubled down: “As the highest profile Muslim candidate in NY history, I feel an obligation to speak out against violence and against bad faith or misinformed efforts to manipulate language in ways that only contribute to the division we’re seeking to overcome. I’ve repeatedly condemned any calls for violence.” He added that the slogan “is not the language that I use,” but argued, “the role of the mayor is not to police language.”
Throughout his political career, Mamdani has been a vocal supporter of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. In 2021, he posted: “We pay our electeds with our tax $$$ to represent us but they go on paid-for trips to Israel. We have 3 letters for them: #BDS. Every elected must be pressured to stand with Palestinians, oppose Apartheid & assert that the fight for dignity knows no exception.”
That same year, he told the Muslim Democratic Club of New York: “Speaking up for Israel comes with everything you might want, and we need to show that it’s not that way anymore. There are consequences for speaking up in favor of apartheid.”
Mamdani has also refused to clearly state whether he would promote BDS policies as mayor. And while the movement targets Israel, Mamdani has not advocated for boycotting any other country.
His associations have drawn further scrutiny. In April, he appeared in a livestream with Hasan Piker, a left-wing influencer who has been accused of making antisemitic remarks, including offensive descriptions of Orthodox Jews and Holocaust-related mockery. Asked about his choice to appear with Piker, Mamdani responded: “I am willing to speak to each and every person about this campaign, and I’ve said that from the beginning.”
As a lawmaker, Mamdani was one of just five members of the New York State Assembly who declined to sign resolutions honoring Israel or commemorating the Holocaust. When pressed, he cited an internal office policy of not signing onto emailed resolutions and said he had voted for Holocaust remembrance resolutions in past years. “I understand this has caused pain and confusion for many,” he said.
He has also authored the “Not on Our Dime!” Act—legislation aimed at prohibiting charitable donations from supporting Israeli military operations or settlement activity. Although the bill has virtually no path forward in Albany, Mamdani has promoted it as one of his marquee achievements. Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie publicly criticized the bill, a rare move, and 66 legislators signed a letter calling it “a ploy to demonize Jewish charities with connections to Israel.”
The lawmakers warned that the bill threatened organizations “with wide ranging missions from feeding the poor to providing emergency medical care for victims of terrorism to clothing orphans.”
Mamdani has also taken heat for his actions and rhetoric following the October 7 attack. On October 13, he rallied outside Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s home, urging action “against the indiscriminate killing of Palestinians as we sit on the brink of a genocide.” He has since repeatedly used the term “genocide” to describe Israel’s actions in Gaza—terminology strongly condemned by the Anti-Defamation League.
In the weeks following Hamas’s massacre, Mamdani flooded social media with pro-Palestinian content, and he was arrested during protests in New York. He has criticized lawmakers who attend Israel Day Parades and has taken credit for helping block a state resolution marking Israel’s Independence Day.
In a 2021 interview, Mamdani recounted: “Every year they introduced this resolution commending Israel’s day of independence, and this year, it was introduced, it was scheduled to go up, and I called the central staff of the assembly, and I made it clear that if this resolution were to come to the floor, I would speak in opposition… The resolution has yet to come to the floor.”
He added with a smile, “Just the fact of registering opposition—that business as usual cannot continue—is so, so important. We must not cede any ground to apartheid and to supporters of apartheid.”
As Mamdani prepares for a general election campaign, the Democratic Party—and the broader New York electorate—now faces a profound question: Can a candidate who has alienated large segments of the city’s Jewish population and openly supported movements considered by many as discriminatory still unify and lead America’s most diverse metropolis?
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