From the Liveblog of
Monday, June 22, 2026
Mamdani defends calling AIPAC ‘monsters’
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Luke Tress is The Times of Israel's New York correspondent.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani defends calling AIPAC “monsters” in comments that were widely decried as trafficking in antisemitic tropes.
“We’re talking about a status quo where children are being killed on a daily basis,” Mamdani says during a press event, mentioning the killing of Al Jazeera cameraman Ahmed Washah on Saturday.
The IDF said Washah was a Hamas operative. Purported journalists in Gaza have repeatedly been found to have been members of terrorist groups.
“When I am speaking about AIPAC, I’m speaking about an organization that has been supportive of the status quo, that has fought any attempt to actually deliver safety to people, not just in Palestine, but frankly, through much of the region,” Mamdani said. “It is a status quo for immorality. It is one that I will not accept.”
“It is important that when we ask ourselves how such death and destruction is happening overseas, we also name those who allow it to take place,” he says.
Mamdani made the previous comment during a rally on Thursday.
He said that “the monsters that we are up against, they take many different forms,” and then singled out AIPAC.
He described the pro-Israel lobby as an organization “for whom the only thing more frightening than democracy being allowed to run its course is an end to genocide and Netanyahu’s wars.”
Mamdani continued by alleging that AIPAC moves “millions in dark money to accomplish a single goal, 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.”
Jewish leaders and Jewish organizations say the comment crossed a line.
The head of the American Jewish Committee, Ted Deutch, says in a statement addressed to Mamdani: “When you call people monsters, you’re not debating ideas, you’re dehumanizing the people you disagree with.”
After watching @NYCMayor's recent speech at a political rally, I wanted to offer these thoughts to him.
Mayor Mamdani, referring to fellow New Yorkers as “monsters” is outrageous and dangerous, and the impact of your words extends far beyond politics.
It’s not only about your… https://t.co/q1sk86fFkL
— Ted Deutch, CEO of American Jewish Committee (@AJCCEO) June 22, 2026
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