Mayor’s remarks ignite backlash as Jewish groups accuse City Hall of erasing Israel’s survival story.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani defended his administration’s controversial decision to use official city channels to mark “Nakba Day,” despite fierce criticism from Jewish leaders who said the message distorted history and ignored the Arab war launched against Israel in 1948.
Speaking at a Bronx press conference, Mamdani said the post recognized Palestinian suffering during Israel’s establishment and argued that acknowledging one community’s pain does not prevent recognition of another’s. His comments failed to calm outrage from Jewish organizations, which accused him of using municipal authority to promote a one-sided anti-Israel narrative.
The UJA-Federation of New York sharply rejected Mamdani’s framing, saying it erased the rejection of the UN partition plan, the Arab assault on the newborn Jewish state, and the mass displacement of Jewish refugees from Arab countries after Israel’s creation.
Major Jewish organizations and rabbinic leaders boycotted Mamdani’s Shavuot and Jewish American Heritage Month event at Gracie Mansion, calling his position incompatible with recognition of Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people.
The controversy adds to Mamdani’s long record of anti-Israel positions, including refusal to clearly reject “globalize the intifada,” criticism of Israel immediately after the October 7 Hamas massacre, threats against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and cancellation of executive orders recognizing the IHRA definition of antisemitism and discouraging boycotts of Israel.
For many Jewish New Yorkers, the Nakba Day post was not an act of inclusion but another alarming signal that City Hall is legitimizing narratives that delegitimize Israel while minimizing the historic aggression faced by the Jewish state.
