Mamdani says it’s ‘hard to prepare for death threats’ over his views on Israel

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani says it has been “hard to prepare for death threats” made over his anti-Israel views.

In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, the Democratic socialist mayor is asked about criticism he and his wife, Rama Duwaji— also a staunch anti-Israel activist — have faced over their views on Israel and Gaza.

“It is hard to prepare for death threats,” he says. “It is hard to prepare for getting a phone call from a district attorney telling you that someone from another state is going to be charged for what they have said and hoped to do about you.”

In September, when Mamdani was running for mayor, Jeremy Fistel, a Texas man, was indicted on charges of making a terroristic threat as a hate crime for messages he had sent and left for Mamdani.

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said at the time that Fistel told Mamdani “to go back to Uganda before someone shoots him in the head, to keep an eye on his house and family, to watch his back every second until he leaves America, and that he and his relatives deserve to die.”