New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a frequent and harsh critic of the Jewish state, was asked at a Wednesday press conference about the Economic Development Corporation removing a webpage recently that promoted Israeli businesses in the Big Apple.
“I’m wondering why did that occur, and I’m wondering does that have to do with your sort of expressed views about Israel, the rights of Palestinians?” a reporter asked. “Furthermore, does this suggest any sort of shift in the city’s treatment of Israeli businesses or Israeli companies?”
“I can get back to you on the specifics of that,” the mayor said.
A reporter also asked Mamdani, whose spokeswoman has said that synagogues violate international law when they host pro-Israel events, to “just assess for us how you think things went last night at the Park East Synagogue protest.”
“Do you think the police effectively enforced a buffer zone? Is that what essentially happened?” the reporter asked. “Was the right to protest sufficiently protected in your view?”
A “buffer zone” law, calling on the New York City Police Department to create a plan to prevent protesters from barring entry and exit to houses of worship, became New York City law recently, after passing the City Council with a veto-proof majority. Mamdani vetoed a virtually identical law about educational institutions.
“Yes, I think that I’ve made it clear time and time again that we in this city believe in the sacrosanct nature of the right to protest and also are committed to ensuring that any New Yorker can safely enter or exit from a house of worship and that access never be in question while we also protect the First Amendment,” Mamdani said at the press conference. “I do believe that the police ensured that yesterday.”
The reporter also said that the mayor talks “about ways to prevent antisemitism.”
“I noticed yesterday that when you put out a statement about the protest, in advance of the protest, you noted that you agreed with the protesters,” the reporter said. “You’ve weighed in on the subject of Israel in a couple of other ways in recent days, and I just wonder whether you are considering whether you personally putting your views about Israel out there is in any way fueling antisemitism in the city?”
“Do you ever think maybe you should just not weigh in or just not bring it up?” the reporter asked.
“No, I think that critique of the policies of a government is very much separate from bigotry toward the people of a specific religious faith, and there is no tolerance for antisemitism,” Mamdani said. “There is no tolerance for hatred of Jewish New Yorkers, which we have seen time and time again, whether it be in the graffitiing of swastikas on a number of homes across Queens recently.”
“I’ve also been clear to New Yorkers, my honest opinions about the fact that when we have a real estate expo that is promoting the sale of land, which includes the sale of land in occupied West Bank in settlements that are a violation of international law, that is something that I firmly disagree with,” he said, “and that I also believe that many New Yorkers firmly disagree with, because it has been at the heart of an ongoing effort to displace Palestinians from their homes.”
