Zohran Mamdani, mayor of New York City, drew criticism from both U.S. and Israeli lawmakers after he said at a rally with Sen. Bernie Sander (I-Vt.) that AIPAC is a “monster” that moves “dark money.”
Mamdani, who has said that he would have Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrested in New York and whose spokeswoman said that synagogues violate international law when they host pro-Israel events, spoke from a podium that stated “our team, our year,” in front of seated people holding signs for congressional candidates Brad Lander and Claire Valdez. Both of the latter, the Jewish former city comptroller and a state Assembly member respectively, have accused Israel of “genocide.”
The mayor has also backed Darializa Avila Chevalier, who has made the same claim of “genocide.”
Mamdani said from the podium that “monsters take many forms today.”
“In those who fund television ads that blanket the airwaves with misleading and bad faith attacks about Claire, Brad and Dari. Those who would rather spend far more on political contributions than they would ever be made to pay in taxes,” the mayor said. “In AIPAC, for whom the only thing more frightening than democracy being allowed to run its course is an end to genocide and Netanyahu’s wars.”
“They move millions in dark money to accomplish a single goal,” he said. “To preserve their power so that they can turn us against one another instead of our leaders turning towards the moral change we all know to be necessary.”
Speaking at the JNS annual conference in Jerusalem on Monday, Amir Ohana, speaker of the Knesset, said that the “real monster in New York City is the antisemite currently occupying Gracie Mansion.”
Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) also commented on Mamdani’s statements.
“‘Monsters.’ ‘Dark money.’ A hidden hand ‘turning us against one another.’ Swap ‘AIPAC’ for ‘Jews’ and it’s the oldest antisemitic conspiracy theory in the books,” he stated. “That’s not criticizing a lobby. That’s laundering antisemitism from your podium as mayor of a city with more than a million Jews. This bulls*** is dangerous.”
“If you want to talk about real monsters, let’s start with the North Koreans, Russians, Sudanese, the Iranian regime and their proxies—Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad—and other terrorist groups who’ve killed scores of Americans,” the Jewish congressman said.
Danny Danon, Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, stated that “whenever he gets the chance, Zohran Mamdani uses his public platform to attack the Jewish community and spread anti-Israel rhetoric.”
“Mr. Mamdani, when you describe AIPAC as ‘monsters moving millions in dark money to preserve power,’ you are invoking some of the oldest and most blatant antisemitic tropes in history,” the Israeli envoy said. “The only real monster in this story is the hatred you continue to normalize.”
The Anti-Defamation League office in New York and New Jersey stated that the mayor has to apologize.
“Referring to members of the Jewish community, who advocate for causes they care about, as ‘monsters’ wielding ‘dark money’ is shockingly offensive and unacceptable for a mayor who claims to represent all New Yorkers,” the ADL said. “This is not about political disagreement. It is about crossing a dangerous line by invoking dehumanizing and conspiratorial rhetoric with a long and troubling history in antisemitic tropes.”
“We cannot allow fear-mongering, conspiracy theories or the demonization of Jews to become normalized in our public debate,” it said.
Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO and national director of the ADL, stated on Sunday that “it’s been three days since Mayor Mamdani took the stage to demonize and denigrate his Jewish constituents.”
“I initially didn’t say anything, because I felt certain he would retract his incendiary comments or at least explain them. I was wrong,” Greenblatt stated. “This is the kind of bigoted conspiracy-mongering that you expect from unhinged streamers or white supremacists. It’s not the language that we should expect from the mayor, whose jurisdiction suffers from the highest levels of antisemitism of any city in America.”
“This is not a principled disagreement. This is prejudice pure and simple,” he stated. “It is deliberate, dangerous and disgraceful.”
Ted Deutch, CEO of the American Jewish Committee, stated that Mamdani’s reference to “fellow New Yorkers as ‘monsters’ is outrageous and dangerous,” and the impact of his statement “extends far beyond politics.”
“It’s not only about your repeated attacks on Israel and those who support it, now rooted in the oldest antisemitic conspiracy theories of secret control and nefarious agendas,” he told the mayor. “It’s about politics and division. You are doing exactly what you falsely accuse others of doing. Your accusation, Mr. Mayor? Efforts ‘to turn us against one another instead of our leaders turning toward the moral change we all know to be necessary.’”
“But when you use your position to label people you disagree with as monsters—people who live and work and pay taxes in the city you lead, people who loved the Knicks championship parade as much as you did, people who spent yesterday celebrating their fathers and grandfathers—you are turning people against one another,” he stated. “Your speech wasn’t just about preserving your power. By every measure, it was about growing that power by dividing New Yorkers.”
Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, stated that “one can oppose AIPAC in good faith, but to demonize AIPAC as monsters crosses the line into antisemitic tropes about sinister Jewish political influence.”
“Such rhetoric, used by Mayor Mamdani and other politicians, emboldens people who are bent on harming the Jewish community at a time when NYPD data finds that hate crimes targeting Jews amounted to 60% of all hate crimes in New York City,” he said. “Hateful language fuels hateful attacks on our community.”
