NYC mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani slapped down by Holocaust Museum for trying to ‘sanitize' anti-Israel rally cry
Democratic socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani refused to condemn the anti-Israel 'globalize the intifada' rallying cry Tuesday — drawing a backlash and a backhanded slapdown from the US Holocaust Memorial Museum.
The hot-button phrase has been denounced for allegedly stoking antisemitic violence, but Mamdani argued during an interview with The Bulwark podcast that it instead should be seen as a call to stand up for Palestinian human rights.
He further tried to downplay its hateful associations by contending the museum used it to describe the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising by Polish Jews against the Nazis.
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6 Zohran Mamdani refused to condemn the 'globalize the intifada' rallying cry on The Bulwark podcast.
The Bulwark Podcast
'I think what's difficult also is that the very word has been used by the Holocaust Museum when translating the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising into Arabic, because it's a word that means struggle,' Mamdani said.
But Mamdani's hand-waving assertion only inflamed critics, including fellow mayoral contender Andrew Cuomo and several Jewish leaders, who view the Queens state Assemblyman as harboring dangerously antisemitic views.
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It also inspired a pointed subtweet from the museum itself, which noted it stemmed from 1987's violent First Intifada by Palestinians against Israel.
'Exploiting the Museum and the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising to sanitize 'globalize the intifada' is outrageous and especially offensive to survivors,' the museum tweeted. 'Since 1987 Jews have been attacked and murdered under its banner. All leaders must condemn its use and the abuse of history.'
6 Mamdani contended the US Memorial Holocaust Museum described the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising as an 'intifada' in Arabic.
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While the subtweet didn't mention Mamdani, a US Holocaust Memorial Museum spokesman confirmed it was referring to the liberal Democrat.
'Any claim that 'globalize the intifada' is not antisemitic or calling for violence against Jews is false and must be denounced,' museum spokesman Andy Hollinger said in a statement.
The intifada kerfuffle is the latest controversy that Mamdani has faced over his vocal anti-Israel stance — and comes a week before the June 24 primary, in which he is vying to become mayor of the nation's largest Jewish city.
6 A Holocaust Memorial Museum spokesman said the tweet was directed at Mamdani.
Universal Images Group via Getty Images
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Mamdani's support of the boycott, divest and sanctions movement, reluctance to say Israel has a right to exist as a 'Jewish state' and refusal to sign resolutions recognizing Israel and the Holocaust have overshadowed his emphatic rejection of antisemitism and espousal of nonviolence.
Cuomo, the frontrunner in the mayoral race, quickly seized on the chance to pile onto the upstart candidate.
The former governor, who has made fighting antisemitism a plank of his would-be political comeback, called Mamdani's words 'dangerous.'
'There is nothing complicated about what this means,' Cuomo said in a statement.
'I call on all candidates running for mayor to join together to denounce Mr. Mamdani's comments because hate has no place in New York.'
6 Mamdani is a vocal critic of Israel.
Instagram/@zohrankmamdani
6 Mamdani repeatedly has espoused nonviolence.
Instagram/@zohrankmamdani
Cuomo has wracked up endorsements from nearly every major ultra-Orthodox Jewish and Hasidic voting organization.
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Rabbi Marc Schneier called on Mamdani to apologize for equating the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising with 'intifada.'
'His language is a direct insult to survivors and the hundreds of thousands of Jewish New Yorkers who are the relatives of loved ones lost in the Shoah,' Schneier said in a statement. 'His moral laryngitis in the face of Iranian attacks on Israeli civilians further exposes his indifference to Jewish suffering and disqualifies him from any leadership role in this city.'
Outspoken pro-Israel Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-Bronx) argued the rallying cry has ignited a recent antisemitic wave of violence in the US, from the firebombing of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro's mansion to the assassination of two Israeli Embassy staffers and a Molotov cocktail-hurling nutjob's attack in Colorado.
'To compare the instigators of antisemitic violence to Jews seeking liberation from Nazi death camps—as Zohran Mamdani has done—is not only disgraceful,' Torres tweeted. 'It is disqualifying.'
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6 The Queens state Assemblyman refused to sign resolutions recognizing Israel and the Holocaust.
Beyond the debate over 'globalize the intifada' is antisemitic, Mamdani does appear correct that the word was used in a Holocaust Museum exhibit about the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
The museum's website reportedly used the word to describe the Jewish uprising against the Nazis until mid-2024, when it was changed to 'muqawama,' meaning resistance, according to a Business Insider reporter.
Mamdani emotionally responded to the backlash Wednesday, contending as a Muslim he has been the target of hate and threats on his life.
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He said the function of racism is 'distraction.'
'Antisemitism is such a real issue in this city,' he said. 'It has been hard to see it weaponized by candidates who do not seem to have any sincere interest in tackling it, but rather as a pretext to make political points.'
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