New York Metropolis politicians, together with progressives Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, have extensively condemned the pro-Palestinian protesters who chanted “We assist Hamas right here” exterior a Queens synagogue final week.
In Mamdani’s case, his feedback — which his critics mentioned got here particularly late — marked the primary time that he used the phrases “terrorist group” to confer with Hamas, although he didn’t use the group’s identify.
“As I mentioned earlier in the present day, chants in assist of a terrorist group don’t have any place in our metropolis,” Mamdani tweeted late Friday. “We’ll proceed to make sure New Yorkers’ security getting into and exiting homes of worship in addition to the constitutional proper to protest.”
In preliminary feedback not posted to social media, Mamdani had mentioned, “The rhetoric and shows that we noticed and heard in Kew Gardens Hills final evening are fallacious and don’t have any place in our metropolis.”
Different politicians had weighed in on social media sooner, together with Gov. Kathy Hochul. Ocasio-Cortez, like Mamdani a critic of Israel, had denounced the protest as antisemitic.
“Hey so marching right into a predominantly Jewish neighborhood and main with a chant saying ‘we assist Hamas’ is a disgusting and antisemitic factor to do,” she wrote on X on Friday, the day after the protest. “Fairly primary!”
The protest was extensively seen as a check for Mamdani, a staunch critic of Israel who had alarmed some Jewish leaders together with his response to a November rally through which folks in search of to attend an occasion about shifting to Israel at a Manhattan synagogue needed to go near demonstrators who had been yelling insults at them. On the time, the mayor-elect reiterated his vow to maintain all New Yorkers protected however added that “sacred areas shouldn’t be used to advertise actions in violation of worldwide legislation.”
The group that organized that rally, PAL-Awda, was additionally behind the Thursday demonstration exterior Younger Israel of Kew Gardens Hills, which was internet hosting an occasion selling actual property in Maale Adumim, a Jewish metropolis within the West Financial institution.
Whereas Mamdani referred to as the protesters’ rhetoric “fallacious,” the New York Metropolis mayor’s preliminary feedback drew criticism from folks — together with his personal supporters — who noticed it as weaker than what different politicians wrote. Not like Ocasio-Cortez and Brad Lander — Mamdani’s most outstanding Jewish ally — he didn’t name the protest antisemitic or denounce the protesters.
“I’m a vocal & passionate assist [sic] of Mamdani’s,” wrote Adam Carlson, founding father of polling group Zenith Analysis. “However I’ve waited patiently all day for him to forcefully condemn Hamas — watching dozens of different metropolis & state electeds accomplish that — and am nonetheless ready. This isn’t solely hurtful to me, but it surely’s dangerous politics & distracts from his agenda.”
His second assertion, posted to X, appeared to confer with Hamas as a terrorist group, allaying considerations of a few of his critics. Mamdani, a longtime pro-Palestinian advocate, had drawn criticism for seeming to withstand condemning Hamas on the marketing campaign path, although he did denounce the group’s Oct. 7, 2023, assault on Israel.
“Thanks!” wrote Yaacov Behrman, a Crown Heights activist who works as a PR liaison for the Chabad-Lubavitch motion. “The mayor did the correct factor by calling Hamas a terrorist group and making clear that this rhetoric is unacceptable.”
Alternatively, a few of Mamdani’s supporters with staunchly pro-Palestinian views expressed displeasure with Mamdani’s assertion for criticizing solely the protesters, and never the sale of land within the West Financial institution.
“ftr i don’t anticipate an elected us politician to return out as professional hamas, however its clear that many individuals see the professional palestinian trigger as a minimum of discardable in the event that they’re going to make a fuss about THIS as a substitute of the kahanist flags waving zionists or the unlawful synagogue land sale!!” Hasan Piker, the progressive streamer and Mamdani supporter, posted on X.
A few of the pro-Israel counter-protesters shouted “We love ICE,” a reference to the federal immigration enforcement company that has been concerned within the Trump administration’s efforts to deport pro-Palestinian protesters, generally underneath the accusation that they’re “Hamas sympathizers.”
Ocasio-Cortez’s feedback additionally drew criticism, together with from the Palestinian author and activist Mohammed El-Kurd, who initially shared them by saying, “Shut the f–ok up” and later likened the protesters to those that had demonstrated for girls’s proper to vote.
“Protest, by definition, is meant to ruffle feathers. It’s imagined to be provocative and confrontational,” he wrote. “That’s how issues change: you don’t appease the established order; you problem it.”
In a joint Instagram put up, left-wing organizations Jewish Voice for Peace, IfNotNow and the American Council for Judaism criticized the final response to PAL-Awda’s protest.
“When folks protest towards gross sales of stolen Palestinian land, elected officers and much too many Jewish establishments rush to decry the demonstrations,” their put up learn. “However this outrage obscures the actual questions: Why is Palestinian land being stolen and bought? And why is it bought inside our synagogues and temples?”
On Saturday, Mamdani was requested at an unrelated occasion why he didn’t condemn the land sale in his assertion, and responded, “I completely am in opposition to the sale of land within the occupied West Financial institution.”
On Sunday, he denounced a fireplace at a synagogue in Jackson, Mississippi, as antisemitic. Whereas a suspect has been arrested, authorities haven’t commented on his potential motivation.
“I’m horrified by this violent act of antisemitism in Jackson,” Mamdani tweeted from his mayoral account. “As hatred rears its ugly head throughout our nation, it’s incumbent upon every of us to reject it with the unity it fears, and to face steadfast alongside our Jewish brothers and sisters.”
