Political rivals and Jewish organizations responded with harsh criticism to remarks by a New York City mayoral candidate that seemed to defend the slogan "globalize the intifada." Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist who would be the city's first Muslim mayor, choked up Wednesday as he told reporters about the vitriol reaction to his comments, NBC News reports, saying he's consistently spoken against antisemitism. "I get messages that say: 'The only good Muslim is a dead Muslim,'" he said. "I get threats on my life, on the people that I love." Mamdani had been asked in an interview with the Bulwark posted Tuesday whether the phrase "globalize the intifada" makes him uncomfortable.
He passed on the chance to denounce it, instead saying the motto reflects "a desperate desire for equality and equal rights in standing up for Palestinian human rights." Although Palestinians have described the phrase as a rallying cry for liberation, many Jews see it as a call to violence invoking resistance movements of the 1980s and 2000s, per the New York Times. The US Holocaust Museum used "intifada" in Arabic-language descriptions of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising against Nazi Germany, Mamdani said in the interview. In the press conference Wednesday, he said antisemitism is being "weaponized by candidates who do not seem to have any sincere interests in tackling it, but rather in using it as a pretext to make political points." Reaction came from:
- The US Holocaust Museum: "Exploiting the Museum and the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising to sanitize 'globalize the intifada' is outrageous and especially offensive to survivors. Since 1987 Jews have been attacked and murdered under its banner. All leaders must condemn its use and the abuse of history."
- Jonathan Greenblatt of the Anti-Defamation League: The phrase is an "explicit incitement to violence."
- US Rep. Dan Goldman: "If Mr. Mamdani is unwilling to heed the request of major Jewish organizations to condemn this unquestionably antisemitic phrase, then he is unfit to lead a city with 1.3 million Jews—the largest Jewish population outside of Israel."
- Michael Blake, a fellow candidate who cross-endorsed Mamdani in the race: "Even among family & friends, we have to hold people accountable to condemn and denounce these words."
- Basim Elkarra of the political arm of the Council on American-Islamic Relations: Mamdani is among those who have used the phrase "to call for nonviolent, worldwide solidarity aimed at securing equal rights and safety for everyone in the region."
- Andrew Cuomo, an opponent in Tuesday's primary: "At a time when we are seeing antisemitism on the rise and in fact witnessing once again violence against Jews resulting in their deaths in Washington, D.C. or their burning in Denver—we know all too well that words matter. They fuel hate. They fuel murder."
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