Manhattan Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) blasted New York City mayoral candidate and socialist Zohran Mamdani for refusing to condemn the “globalize the intifada” slogan associated with violence against Jewish people.
Mamdani has drawn fire from both ends of the political spectrum for his views on Israel, and his latest take has earned him condemnation from multiple sources, including Goldman, who backed state Sen. Zellnor Myrie in the New York City mayoral Democratic primary.
“Two weeks ago, shortly after a man tried to burn Jews alive in Boulder, Colorado with Molotov cocktails, leading Jewish organizations issued a statement urging every candidate for mayor of New York City to condemn calls for violence against Jews, specifically identifying the slogan ‘globalizing the intifada’,” Goldman said in a statement.
“Yesterday, Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani refused to condemn that phrase and justified it as support for Palestinian human rights,” Goldman added.
Goldman was speaking about an interview Mamdani participated in on Tuesday in which, when presented with the opportunity to condemn the phrase, he refused to. He instead said, “What I hear in so many is a desperate desire for equality and equal rights in standing up for Palestinian human rights.”
The New York congressman said the term is “well understood” to refer to “violent terror attacks against innocent Israeli civilians that occurred during the First and Second Intifadas. Globalizing the intifada is simply exporting that violence against Jews around the world.”
Goldman said Mamdani is “unfit to lead” New York City if he is not willing to condemn the phrase and urged him to do so.
When asked about his comments on the podcast on Wednesday, Mamdani appeared emotional and spoke about the anti-Muslim rhetoric against him. “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, and I try not to talk about it … antisemitism is such a real issue in this city, and it has been hard to see it weaponized by candidates who do not seem to have any sincere interest in tackling it but rather using it as a pretext to make political points,” he added.
The front-runner in the city’s mayoral Democratic primary, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, has already blasted Mamdani for his refusal to condemn the phrase.
“Yesterday when @ZohranKMamdani was asked a direct question about what he thought of the phrase ‘globalize the intifada’, he dismissed it as ‘language that is subject to interpretation.’ That is not only wrong — it is dangerous,” he wrote in a post on X. He then called on all mayoral candidates to denounce Mamdani’s comments.
Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and others have also come out of the woodwork to attack Mamdani on his refusal to condemn the phrase. “Zohran Mamdani’s pathetic, hateful lies are a blatant slap in the face of the Jewish community. He must apologize immediately. I also suggest that he visit the Holocaust Museum in the coming days and learn why these words are so dangerous,” he wrote in a post on X.
The U.S. Holocaust Museum indirectly slammed Mamdani’s comments after he mentioned the museum’s translation of the “Warsaw Ghetto Uprising into Arabic — because it’s a word [intifada] that means struggle.”
“Exploiting the Museum and the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising to sanitize ‘globalize the intifada’ is outrageous and especially offensive to survivors,” the museum posted on X. “Since 1987 Jews have been attacked and murdered under its banner. All leaders must condemn its use and the abuse of history.”
No other mayoral candidates other than Whitney Tilson and Cuomo have blasted Mamdani’s comments on the phrase.
Elisha Wiesel, son of Holocaust survivor and author Elie Wiesel, told the Forward he thinks the phrase is “horrific” and doesn’t understand why he doesn’t denounce it. “I can’t see into Zohran Mamdani’s soul, so when he doubles down on saying that globalizing the intifada is a good thing, I genuinely can’t tell whether he’s just completely naive or evil,” he said.
While Mamdani has been criticized for his stance on Israel, Cuomo has been one of the strongest supporters of Israel in the mayoral race. The former New York governor is seen as the centrist alternative to the progressive Mamdani, who has championed affordability with his free buses and child care rallying cry.
WHO IS BRAD LANDER — THE NYC MAYORAL CANDIDATE ARRESTED BY ICE?
A recent Marist poll saw Mamdani lose to Cuomo in the seventh round of ranked choice voting, 55% to 45%. Mamdani’s opponents believe his stance on Israel will sink him.
“At the end of the day, a big part of the reason Mamdani is going to lose is that he is more committed to hating Israel than to getting to implement policies that he thinks will make New York better,” Manhattan Institute fellow Charles Fain Lehman posted on X.
