Mamdani backs police protest response, criticizes Israel real estate event at synagogue

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani backs the police response to a protest near a synagogue last night.

Anti-Zionist activist groups protested near Manhattan’s Park East Synagogue, saying they were targeting an event marketing real estate in Israel.

Synagogues sometimes rent out space for the real estate events, which also market apartments in West Bank settlements, drawing harsh protests that are marked by violent rhetoric and support for terror groups.

“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,” Mamdani says at a press conference. “I do believe that the police ensured that yesterday evening.”

The organizers of yesterday’s protest, the hardline anti-Zionist Pal-Awda group, lashes out at Mamdani.

“Protesters were kettled, beat and pepper-sprayed to help facilitate a real estate event you claim to oppose,” the group says in response to Mamdani. “Tell us how you are preserving New Yorkers’ right to protest.”

“Kettling” refers to a police practice of surrounding protesters. The Times of Israel did not witness kettling, beatings, or the use of pepper spray at yesterday’s protest, although there were some reports of pepper spray being used elsewhere.

Other anti-Zionist activist and student groups in the city have criticized Mamdani for the police’s handling of the protest, and some demonstrators at the protest mocked Mamdani for the police response.

While Mamdani is a longtime anti-Israel activist and has identified as an anti-Zionist, his positions are not hardline enough for some elements of the movement.

Mamdani also criticizes the Israeli real estate event, calling the sales a “violation of international law.” The statement is similar to criticism he made of another protest at the synagogue late last year that sparked widespread outrage for equating the protesters and the synagogue, although in today’s comments, he does not mention that the event took place at a house of worship.

Both statements have drawn criticism from mainstream Jewish groups.

“He further inflamed tensions on an already volatile situation,” the Anti-Defamation League’s New York/New Jersey branch says. “The Mayor had a responsibility to de-escalate. He did the opposite.”

The tensions surrounding the protest highlight the fraught fault line between freedom of religion and the right to free expression in the city.

Mamdani last month did not veto or support a City Council bill meant to better protect houses of worship from protests, in response to the synagogue demonstrations.