Mamdani dodges question on whether NYPD will go ahead with training in Israel

Mayor says decision on maintaining counterterrorism, antisemitism training in Israel is up to city council; footage emerged last year of him blaming Israel for police violence in NY

By JTA and ToI Staff 13 August 2026, 11:44 am

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New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani speaks during the annual New York State Financial Control Board meeting, August 12, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani sidestepped a question Wednesday about whether the New York Police Department would go ahead with plans to visit Israel in the fall to meet with the Israel Police for training.

“I don’t know what the City Council’s plans are,” Mamdani said. “They’re an independent body, and I’ll leave it to the speaker to answer that question.”

Senior NYPD officials have previously traveled to Israel for counterterrorism and antisemitism training.

Last year, video emerged from a 2023 conference in which Mamdani blamed Israel for police violence in New York.

“For anyone to care about these issues, we have to make them hyper-local. We have to make clear that when the boot of the NYPD is on your neck, it’s been laced by the IDF,” he said at the 2023 national convention for the Democratic Socialists of America.

The New York mayor has repeatedly assailed Israel in recent months, as antisemitic hate crimes have climbed.

A New York City Police Department vehicle is parked outside a synagogue on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, October 7, 2023, in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

Earlier this week, New York rabbis from different denominations said they asked Mamdani to tone down his anti-Israel rhetoric during a private meeting at City Hall.

Last month Mamdani was castigated by leading Jewish groups for inflammatory claims about Israel he made in a video announcing that he could not arrest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

According to NYPD data released earlier this month, Jews were targeted in 70 percent of all hate crimes in New York City in July. Confirmed anti-Jewish hate crimes have increased 8.5% in 2026, with 205 so far this year compared to 189 during the same period last year.