Father of NYC Mayoral Candidate Zohran Mamdani Tied to Anti-Israel Group That Glorifies Suicide Bombers

By: Carl Schwartzbaum

As New York City’s mayoral race takes an increasingly contentious turn, fresh scrutiny has emerged over the ideological influences surrounding frontrunner Zohran Mamdani — specifically, the political affiliations and public writings of his father, Mahmood Mamdani. According to a report that appeared on Saturday in The New York Post, the elder Mamdani, a longtime professor at Columbia University, sits on the advisory policy council of a London-based group that accuses Israel of genocide and offers intellectual justifications for suicide bombing.

Mahmood Mamdani, 79, is listed as one of 29 advisors to the Gaza Tribunal, an organization that openly supports the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement. Founded last year, the group describes its mission as “to awaken civil society to its responsibility and opportunity to stop Israel’s genocide in Gaza.” The language is stark — and, as The New York Post report noted, emblematic of a growing campaign that not only delegitimizes Israel but seeks to recast Palestinian terrorism as morally defensible resistance.

The Gaza Tribunal’s positions closely mirror those championed by Zohran Mamdani, the Queens assemblyman whose candidacy has electrified the city’s far-left base. A self-proclaimed democratic socialist, Mamdani has aligned himself with radical anti-Zionist groups, refused to condemn the slogan “Globalize the Intifada,” and promoted legislation aimed at sanctioning companies tied to Israel. The latest revelations regarding his father’s affiliations, however, are likely to further intensify public debate around the ideological underpinnings of his campaign.

According to the report in The New York Post, the connection was first reported Saturday by Fox News, which revealed that Mahmood Mamdani’s name appears on the Gaza Tribunal’s official advisory list. But it’s not just organizational affiliations that have raised alarms. The elder Mamdani has come under renewed fire on social media over controversial comments he made in his 2004 book, “Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War, and the Roots of Terror.” In that work, he urged readers to reframe suicide bombers not as barbaric fanatics, but as a category of “soldier.”

“Suicide bombing needs to be understood as a feature of modern political violence rather than stigmatized as a mark of barbarism,” Mamdani wrote. “We need to recognize the suicide bomber, first and foremost, as a category of soldier.”

The excerpt, resurfaced amid growing scrutiny of Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral ambitions, was met with a chorus of outrage online. Billionaire investor Bill Ackman, a prominent voice in the debate over antisemitism in higher education, commented on X, “The apple @ZohranKMamdani doesn’t fall far from the tree.”

As The New York Post report emphasized, Mahmood Mamdani is not merely a fringe intellectual. He holds a chaired position in African history and colonialism at Columbia University, one of the most influential academic institutions in the country. His writings and associations, critics argue, lend scholarly cover to the vilification of Israel and the moral normalization of terrorism.

The controversy is likely to deepen the fissures already emerging in the mayoral race. Zohran Mamdani, already under fire for his refusal to condemn anti-Israel slogans and groups, has built a campaign around issues of racial justice, police defunding, and what he calls “anti-imperialist foreign policy.” But as The New York Post has noted in recent weeks, his positions on Israel — and the ideological worldviews they reflect — have become a lightning rod for criticism, particularly from New York’s sizable Jewish community.

While the candidate himself has not commented on the new revelations regarding his father, political observers suggest that silence will no longer be sufficient. The connections between Zohran Mamdani’s policy agenda and his father’s intellectual worldview — particularly their shared hostility toward Zionism and sympathy for Palestinian “resistance” — are becoming too stark to ignore.

The New York Post has documented the growing concern among Jewish voters and city leaders. “This isn’t just a question of foreign policy,” one unnamed city council member told the Post. “It’s about whether someone who aspires to lead the most diverse city in the world is prepared to protect all its communities — including Jews — from hate, intimidation, and the toxic ideology that seeks to normalize violence.”

Moreover, Mahmood Mamdani’s association with the Gaza Tribunal, which equates Israel’s self-defense with genocide, has cast a fresh spotlight on how anti-Zionist rhetoric in elite academic and political circles is increasingly converging with antisemitic narratives. Groups such as the Tribunal have supported efforts to delegitimize Israel through international legal forums and have offered platforms for individuals and organizations with histories of glorifying violence against Israeli civilians.

The elder Mamdani’s record is not merely a footnote in a family’s academic résumé. It represents an ideological inheritance that deserves public reckoning, particularly when the son is vying to lead a city that has been at the forefront of battling rising antisemitism.

In recent months, The New York Post has reported extensively on the disturbing surge in anti-Jewish incidents across the five boroughs, including harassment, vandalism, and public intimidation. Critics argue that political figures who express or tolerate extreme anti-Israel views — or who are shaped by ideologies that blur the lines between political critique and incitement — risk emboldening such acts.

Whether or not Mahmood Mamdani’s views directly influence his son’s political actions, the optics and implications are clear: the mayoral race is now a flashpoint in a broader battle over antisemitism, academic radicalism, and the future of New York’s political landscape.

Mahmood Mamdani could not be reached for comment, The New York Post noted.

But his writings — and his affiliations — continue to speak volumes.