New York’s hotly contested mayoral race came to a close Tuesday night as Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani was declared the winner.
Mamdani, a 34-year-old assemblyman from Queens, carried 50.4% of the votes to former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s 41.3% at around 9:40 p.m. The projection, which came as 75% of votes were counted, found GOP nominee Curtis Sliwa trailing with 7.5%.
This election cycle had been labeled a referendum on Israel and the war in Gaza to many New Yorkers. Mamdani’s career as a politician and activist has been largely defined by his staunch anti-Israel stance.
Mamdani, who has called Israel an apartheid state and championed the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, has now become the first openly anti-Zionist mayor of a city home to the largest Jewish population outside Israel. His victory marks a dramatic shift in New York politics — one that reflects the growing divide among Democrats over Israel and the future of Jewish identity in progressive spaces.
In recent years, Mamdani has drawn praise from activists who see him as a principled voice for Palestinian rights — and condemnation from Jewish leaders who accuse him of legitimizing antisemitic rhetoric and aligning with groups hostile to Israel’s existence. With tensions over the Gaza war still raw, his mayoralty is likely to test how the city balances free speech, public safety, and the concerns of its 1.6 million Jewish residents.
Let’s unpack what we know about Zohran Mamdani’s stances on Israel.
What has Zohran Mamdani said about Israel’s right to exist?
Over the course of his campaign, Mamdani — who for years has promoted himself as a member of the anti-Zionist movement — spent months dancing around addressing whether Israel has a right to exist, and only provided an answer when pressed directly.
Mamdani has said that he believes that Israel has a “right to exist,” but refused to say that Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish state.
At a May 2025 forum, he responded: “I believe Israel has a right to exist and it has a right to exist also with equal rights for all.”
After months of ambiguity, at the forum, he was asked explicitly whether Israel should be a Jewish state, and refused to directly answer the question.
In June, he clarified and told Fox 5 that he could not support Israel as being branded as a Jewish state: “I’m not comfortable supporting any state that has a hierarchy of citizenship on the basis of religion or anything else … Equality should be enshrined in every country in the world. That’s my belief.”
The Queens Assemblyman has also come under fire for declining to co-sponsor a resolution recognizing Israel’s independence.
On the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement
Mamdani has long been a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, which many — including the United States government and the Anti-Defamation League — argue singles out Israel for condemnation, seeks to undermine the existence of the world’s only Jewish state, and often crosses into rhetoric that delegitimizes or demonizes Jews collectively.
He called BDS a “legitimate movement” during the May 2025 forum hosted by the UJA-Federation of New York.
“My support for BDS is consistent with my core of my politics, which is non-violence,” the Queens assemblyman said.
During a PIX11 mayoral forum in June, Mamdani announced if he was elected, he would dismantle a council, created by current mayor Eric Adams, to strengthen economic ties between the U.S. and Israel.
He has defended BDS as an important mechanism to push Israel into “compliance with international law,” which he has accused Israel of repeatedly violating both before and after the October 7 attacks.
In 2021, Mamdani falsely accused New York politicians of using taxpayer dollars to take trips to Israel and declared that “the only solution is BDS.” The anti-Israel assemblyman then led a chant of “BDS” during the anti-Israel protest.
That same year, during an interview with the Muslim Democratic Club of New York, Mamdani urged activists to condemn politicians over their support of Israel,
“Speaking up for Israel comes with everything you might want, and we need to show that it’s not that way anymore,” he said. “There are consequences for speaking up in favor of apartheid.”
In 2023, he also pushed the “Not On Our Dime Act,” which would have banned New York nonprofits from supporting groups involved in the West Bank settlements.
While the bill’s stated goal was to “prohibit not-for-profit corporations from engaging in unauthorized support of Israeli settlement activity.” Pro-Israel critics claim it would target Jewish nonprofits assisting victims of terror.
Over a decade ago, when Mamdani was a student at Bowdoin College, he co-founded the school’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine. Critics — including major Jewish organizations and several government reports — accuse SJP of promoting antisemitism and aligning ideologically with terrorist groups such as Hamas, citing its rhetoric, events, and funding networks. SJP and its legal advocates insist there is no evidence of formal terror ties and argue that they are being punished for anti-Zionist political speech rather than hatred of Jews.
At Bowdoin, Mamdani blasted the administration for not boycotting Israeli academics based on their national origin. While leading Bowdoin’s SJP chapter, he reversed course in barring the group from meeting with any pro-Israel group, instituting a policy of “non-normalization.” This policy extended to groups like J Street U, which supports a Palestinian state and has been largely critical of Israel.
He has accused Israel of committing genocide
Over the years, Mamdani has repeatedly accused Israel of committing a genocide in Gaza.
Starting on Oct. 13, 2023, less than a week after the Oct. 7 attacks, he posted about Gaza being “on the brink” of genocide, writing, “We are on the brink of a genocide of Palestinians in Gaza right now – and the manufacturing of consent for sending even more US arms to Israel. Now is the moment for all people of conscience to call for a ceasefire and no more military funding.”
When asked how he was certain so soon after military action began that this was the case, Mamdani told The Forward: “Genocide is not just a crime of action, it’s also a crime of intent. And what led me to make that remark was a fear based on the statements we received from a number of Israeli leaders that characterized Palestinians in language more befitting animals than people, and actions that had been taken to shut down civilian access to basic goods such as electricity, for example. That was a fear that I had, and that many other New Yorkers had.”
When pressed by local news stations about his use of the word “genocide,” Mamdani said that his “language is driven by fact,” saying that he became inspired by “experts on the term itself.” He continued to say that, despite disagreement from the majority of the Jewish community, saying Israel is committing genocide is not “a highly charged issue” and “the most accurate description of what is going on.”
Before going into politics, Mamdani released rap songs under the monikers Young Cardamom and Mr. Cardamom. In his 2017 song, “Salam,” he praised the “Holy Land Five” — the leaders of a former Islamic charity organization who were convicted of aiding Hamas, leading to the group’s designation as a terrorist organization by the U.S. government.
On the track, Mamdani raps, “My love to the Holy Land Five. You better look ’em up.”
On the Holocaust
Mamdani faced intense pushback after it was revealed he did not sign onto a resolution commemorating the Holocaust in 2025. His campaign cited his mayoral campaign as the reason because he allegedly was too busy. However, Mamdani did not sign a nearly identical resolution in 2024, before his run.
Use of “globalize the intifada”
Mamdani faced criticism, including from the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, over his defense of the phrase “globalize the intifada,” which many Jews see as a call to antisemitic violence. Mamdani told “The Bulwark” podcast that the phrase evoked the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, when Jews in the ghetto made a final, unsuccessful stand against the Nazis when they were set to be deported to death camps.
“Intifada,” which directly translates to “uprising” or “shaking off.” However, it is traditionally associated with the Second Intifada in the early 2000s when Palestinian terrorists murdered hundreds of Israelis in suicide bombings. Over the past two decades, the call to “Globalize the Intifada” has become a rallying cry for those advocating for Israel’s delegitimization and destruction.
“Ultimately, what I hear in so many is a desperate desire for equality and equal rights in standing up for Palestinian human rights,” Mamdani told Jewish Insider. “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.”
On October 7
In the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7 attacks, Mamdani said that he mourned the death of Israelis, but did not mention Hamas in his statement. Instead, he turned his attention to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for declaring war on the terrorist group, adding that “The path toward a just and lasting peace can only begin by ending the occupation and dismantling apartheid.”
However, in an April interview, Mamdani clarified that he believes the violence of Oct. 7 was tragic, and condemned anti-Israel activists who hosted a rally celebrating the attacks.
“I would say that I very clearly condemned the killing of civilians and the celebration of that killing, or any rhetoric that did so. When Politico asked me about that Oct. 8 rally, I said that it was in no way befitting of a politics that is looking to support universal human rights. And I’ve been clear in calling Oct. 7 what it was — a war crime, a horrific war crime,” he told The Forward.
Mamdani has defended joining antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker’s show. Piker has defended Hamas’ actions on October 7 and downplayed many of the terrorist group’s atrocities.
When asked if he regretted appearing on Piker’s show, Mamdani refused to answer or criticize Piker’s comments.
“I made very clear where I stood,” Mamdani said. “I think this is something that I have sought to embody throughout my career as a consistency — and I think that my actions, my words, even in that interview, spoke for themselves. But it is always helpful to hear feedback as to what I have said and how I’ve engaged.”
Mamdani has also said that he would arrest Netanyahu if the prime minister entered New York City, despite the U.S. not being a signatory to the International Criminal Court.
Originally Published Nov 4, 2025 11:03PM EST
