By: Fern Sidman – Jewish Voice News

Just months before Hamas’s October 7, 2023, massacre of Israeli civilians, New York City mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani stood at a Midtown Manhattan rally shouting into a microphone about “defunding Israeli settler violence,” leading chants that now appear disturbingly out of step with the horrors that soon followed.

As The New York Post reported on Thursday, newly surfaced video footage from July 2023 shows Mamdani — then a sitting Queens assemblyman and already a rising star of New York’s Democratic Socialist movement — whipping up an anti-Israel crowd with fiery rhetoric condemning what he called “our complicity as New Yorkers.” The footage, which began circulating widely on social media this week, has reignited debate over Mamdani’s longstanding hostility toward Israel and its supporters — and his controversial proposal to cut off tax-exempt funding for organizations tied to the Israeli military or Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria.

“That’s what we’re calling for. We are calling for it because we know that the days of inconsistency, the days of drawing the lines in Palestine, those days are over,” Mamdani declared from the stage, his voice rising above the crowd as he led chants of “Not on our dime!”

The demonstration, covered by The New York Post, was organized in support of Mamdani’s legislation co-sponsored by Brooklyn state senator Jabari Brisport, another member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). The proposed law would have empowered the state attorney general to revoke the tax-exempt status of any New York-registered non-profit accused of funding “Israeli military and violent settlers.”

According to the information provided in The New York Post report, the rally attracted a mix of left-wing activists and pro-Palestinian organizers who have long sought to sever American financial and philanthropic ties to Israel — even as their rhetoric increasingly mirrors that of groups sympathetic to Hamas.

The rally, which took place less than three months before Hamas terrorists stormed southern Israel in a blood-soaked attack that left more than 1,200 Israelis dead and hundreds taken hostage, now looks ominously prophetic. As The New York Post report noted, Mamdani’s speech centered on the theme of “inconsistency” — accusing New York politicians and Jewish organizations of hypocrisy for supporting human rights everywhere “except Palestine.”

“When I grew up in this city, I grew up hearing a term: ‘progressive except Palestine,’” he shouted to applause. “I saw the politicians that I admired speak of universal rights and then draw the line right when it came to Palestinians. I was told that was simply how it is — that is how it has been, and it is how it will be.”

For Mamdani, the rally was not merely symbolic. It served as a campaign platform — a stage from which to position himself as the face of a new generation of unapologetically anti-Zionist progressives. But to many observers, the speech revealed a troubling pattern: a refusal to distinguish between legitimate criticism of Israeli policy and the kind of demonization that emboldens extremists.

The New York Post has reported extensively on Mamdani’s long record of inflammatory remarks, including his defense of the slogan “Globalize the Intifada” — a chant widely condemned by Jewish organizations as a call for worldwide violence against Jews.

The bill Mamdani was promoting that July — officially titled the “Not on Our Dime! Ending New York Funding of Israeli Settler Violence Act” — was widely viewed by critics as an attempt to punish Jewish charities under the guise of social justice.

“New York-registered organizations are at the heart of this,” the bill’s promotional website claimed, “sending tens of millions of dollars to fund war crimes waged by Israeli military units devastating Gaza and emboldened settlers expelling Palestinians from their homes.”

By allowing such groups to maintain charitable status, the site alleged, “New York State is subsidizing Israel’s illegal settlement expansion and state violence against Palestinians.”

As The New York Post noted at the time, the legislation was condemned by Jewish leaders and mainstream Democrats as both dangerous and discriminatory. The Jewish Community Relations Council of New York warned that the proposal could have a chilling effect on Jewish philanthropy and potentially criminalize legitimate humanitarian support for Israeli civilians living under rocket fire.

The bill never advanced out of committee. But its underlying message — that Jewish non-profits are complicit in “state violence” — has continued to shape Mamdani’s political brand.

Mamdani, 34, the son of Ugandan filmmaker Mira Nair and Kenyan academic Mahmood Mamdani, has cultivated an image as a champion of immigrant and working-class New Yorkers. Yet as The New York Post has repeatedly documented, his activism often aligns with far-left groups whose rhetoric veers into overt antisemitism.

During his 2020 campaign for the state assembly, Mamdani was endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America, whose New York chapter has been accused of harboring anti-Israel bias and tolerating members who glorify violence against Jews. In 2021, Mamdani spoke at a rally where protesters chanted “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” — a slogan widely interpreted as a call for the elimination of Israel.

According to the information contained in The New York Post report, Mamdani’s critics view him as part of a disturbing trend in progressive politics: the normalization of anti-Israel and antisemitic rhetoric under the banner of “human rights.”

That trend, Jewish leaders say, has metastasized since October 7, as anti-Israel demonstrations in New York and across the U.S. have turned increasingly hostile toward Jewish students, institutions, and community members.

“Zohran Mamdani’s words in that video aren’t just rhetoric — they’re the ideological fuel that lights the fire of hate,” said one Jewish community advocate quoted by The New York Post. “When politicians demonize Israel and its supporters, it trickles down into harassment, threats, and violence on our streets.”

In the months since the Hamas attack, Mamdani has sought to position himself as a voice for “Palestinian liberation” while deflecting accusations of antisemitism. But the resurfaced footage has reignited criticism from both Jewish groups and political opponents who question his moral judgment and fitness to lead a city that is home to more than 1.5 million Jews — the largest Jewish population outside Israel.

“Calling to defund Jewish charities and then refusing to condemn Hamas’s atrocities — that’s not leadership, that’s extremism,” one Democratic strategist told The New York Post. “If Zohran Mamdani becomes mayor, it will send a message to the world that New York no longer stands with Israel.”

Even within the Democratic Party, unease about Mamdani’s rise is growing. Some moderates fear that his candidacy — fueled by the Democratic Socialists’ base and energized by anti-Israel activism — could fracture the city’s liberal coalition and alienate Jewish voters who have historically supported Democratic candidates.

As The New York Post report noted in recent polling, Mamdani continues to lead the mayoral race among left-leaning voters but faces mounting skepticism from centrists and independents. His critics argue that his rhetoric — from “Globalize the Intifada” to “Defund Israeli Settler Violence” — has made him unelectable in a city still scarred by rising antisemitism and campus unrest.

The resurfacing of Mamdani’s July 2023 speech has broader implications than one mayoral race. It reflects a national reckoning within the Democratic Party over how far its progressive wing is willing to go in opposing Israel — and whether that opposition has crossed into moral blindness.

As The New York Post report observed, the footage lands at a moment when Jewish Americans are questioning their place in progressive politics. Once reliable allies, many now feel betrayed by politicians who remain silent in the face of antisemitic rhetoric or downplay Hamas atrocities as “resistance.”

The irony, as one New York Post editorial put it, is that “the same politicians who claim to fight hate are fanning its flames when it comes to Jews.”

For New Yorkers still reeling from the city’s surge in antisemitic crimes — attacks that now account for more than half of all reported hate crimes — the idea of a mayor who once called to “defund Zionism” is, for many, unconscionable.

As the mayoral campaign accelerates, Mamdani’s past words are likely to shadow him — not only as political baggage but as a moral test for voters.

“I want to make it clear,” he told the crowd that summer day in 2023, “I spoke every day to my constituents about the need for us to stand up in a consistent manner for justice for every single person — whether they are in Astoria or in Palestine.”

But for a city still home to the memory of October 7 — and to millions who saw Hamas’s atrocities as the embodiment of evil — that “consistency” may look less like justice and more like justification.

As The New York Post succinctly put it: “Zohran Mamdani’s problem isn’t that he speaks his mind. It’s that his mind seems to stand on the wrong side of history.”