Jewish Congressmen blast NYC mayor candidate Mamdani for defending the term ‘intifada’

Condemnation piles up after New York City Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani, a leading contender to become the city’s next mayor, defends the term “globalize the intifada.”

Asked about the term during a podcast yesterday, Mamdani declined to condemn the phrase, and said, “Ultimately, what I hear in so many is a desperate desire for equality and equal rights in standing up for Palestinian human rights.”

New York Rep. Dan Goldman, a Jewish Democrat, says, “If Mr. Mamdani is unwilling to heed the request of major Jewish organizations to condemn this unquestionably antisemitic phrase, then he is unfit to lead a city with 1.3 million Jews.”

New Jersey Rep. Josh Gottheimer, also Jewish, says, “Mamdani’s pathetic, hateful lies are a blatant slap in the face of the Jewish community. He must apologize immediately.”

New York Rep. Ritchie Torres says Mamdani’s rhetoric is “not only disgraceful. It is disqualifying.”

The UJA-Federation of New York says, “’Globalize the intifada’ is not a call for justice. It is a call for antisemitic violence.”

Asked about the outcry earlier today, Mamdani said, “There’s no room for antisemitism in this city and this country.”

He became emotional and said he has been threatened due to his Muslim identity. He did not apologize or comment on the phrase “intifada.”

This morning, I was asked by a reporter why I haven't had a more visceral reaction to being called an antisemite.

Here was my response. pic.twitter.com/UBcARHGAnv

— Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@ZohranKMamdani) June 18, 2025

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During yesterday’s podcast, Mamdani defended the term by saying that “the Holocaust museum” uses the term intifada in its Arabic translation of “uprising” in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. He was apparently referring to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, based in Washington, DC.

Intifada literally means “uprising” or “shaking off,” but it is associated with the Second Intifada, a terror onslaught against Jewish Israelis in the early 2000s.

The museum issued a rare public political statement earlier today, saying, “Exploiting the museum and the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising to sanitize ‘Globalize the Intifada’ is outrageous and especially offensive to survivors.”

Mamdani is a harsh critic of Israel who is polling in second place in the city’s Democratic party mayoral primary, which will likely determine the next mayor of the mostly Democratic city.