{"id":3407,"date":"2026-06-22T20:38:54","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T20:38:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=3407"},"modified":"2026-06-22T20:38:54","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T20:38:54","slug":"mamdani-defends-criticism-of-aipac-after-being-accused-of-antisemitism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=3407","title":{"rendered":"Mamdani defends criticism of AIPAC after being accused of antisemitism"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Monday defended his remarks last week sharply denouncing the American Israel Public Affairs Committee after prominent Jewish leaders accused him of antisemitism.\n <\/p>

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\n \u201cWhen I am speaking about AIPAC, I\u2019m speaking about an organization that has been supportive of the status quo, that has fought any attempt to actually deliver safety to people, not just in Palestine, but frankly, through much of the region, and it is a status quo for immorality,\u201d Mamdani said during a press conference at City Hall, pointing to Israeli operations in Gaza. \u201cAnd when it comes to the way in which they defend the status quo, oftentimes they defend it through direct contributions, as we are seeing right now in New York.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The mayor, a prominent critic of Israel\u2019s government, is facing pushback after Jewish leaders argued that he went too far in his recent condemnation of the pro-Israel lobby\u2019s spending in a New York House primary.\n <\/p>\n

\n As Mamdani rallied with a slate of progressive challengers he has endorsed on Thursday, he described\u201cmonsters\u201d that he said include \u201cthose who fund television ads that blanket the airwaves with misleading and bad faith attacks\u201d against his three endorsed candidates. Mamdani then ripped into AIPAC, which has spent millions to boost pro-Israel candidates in congressional primaries this year, often by running ads that reference domestic issues rather than foreign policy.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThey move millions in dark money to accomplish a single goal, to preserve their power, so that they can turn us against one another, instead of our leaders turning towards the moral change we all know to be necessary,\u201d Mamdani said.\n <\/p>\n

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\nNew York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani attends a Get Out the Vote rally in Brooklyn, New York, on Thursday.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Eduardo Munoz\/Reuters<\/figcaption>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\nZohran Mamdani sharply criticizes Democratic Party as he rallies with progressive challengers<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

3 min read<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

\n According to Federal Election Commission filings, AIPAC\u2019s super PAC, United Democracy Project, made two political contributions last month totaling over $600,000 to BOLD America, which has been funding ads in support of Rep. Adriano Espaillat \u2013 whom Mamdani-backed candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier is challenging in New York\u2019s 13th District.\n <\/p>\n

\n CNN has reached out to AIPAC for comment.\n <\/p>\n

\n In the following days, the leaders of the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee condemned Mamdani\u2019s remarks, accusing Mamdani of using antisemitic tropes and warning of the dangers of such language coming from the mayor of the city with the largest Jewish population outside Israel.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cMayor Mamdani, referring to fellow New Yorkers as \u2018monsters\u2019 is outrageous and dangerous, and the impact of your words extends far beyond politics,\u201d said Ted Deutch, the AJC\u2019s CEO, in a post on X.\n <\/p>\n

\n New Jersey Rep. Josh Gottheimer, a Jewish Democrat, echoed those concerns on Sunday evening.\n <\/p>

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\n \u201cSwap \u2018AIPAC\u2019 for \u2018Jews\u2019 and it\u2019s the oldest antisemitic conspiracy theory in the books,\u201d Democratic Rep. Josh Gottheimer, said in a post on X. \u201cThat\u2019s not criticizing a lobby. That\u2019s laundering antisemitism from your podium as Mayor of a city with more than a million Jews. This bullshit is dangerous.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Mamdani stood by his remarks on Monday, noting the increasing death toll in Gaza despite a fragile, US-brokered ceasefire. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, Israeli strikes have killed more than 1,000 people in Gaza since the ceasefire went into effect in mid-October.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI think that it is important that when we ask ourselves how such death and destruction is happening overseas, we also name those who allow it to take place,\u201d he told reporters.\n <\/p>\n

\n When pressed on his use of the term \u201cmonsters,\u201d Mamdani said he was quoting Antonio Gramsci, the founder of the Italian Communist Party, as he condemned super PAC spending in several New York races.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI used the term to describe all those who are preventing the birth of a new world, not solely AIPAC, but frankly super PACs at large, who are spending millions of dollars in deceptive and misleading ads that are blanketing airwaves, not just in the case of Darializa Avila Chevalier, but also we see that kind of PAC spending when it comes to oppose Brad Lander, who\u2019s running for Congress, as well as Claire Valdez, as well as a number of other races,\u201d the mayor said.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cAnd I also use the term to describe a politics that, for far too long, has asked working people to lower their expectations,\u201d he continued. \u201cMy use of the term is a broad use that speaks to the untenable nature of a status quo that is quite literally starving people in the city, all in the name of sustaining something that we simply cannot defend any longer.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Lander has made Rep. Dan Goldman\u2019s past support from AIPAC a key part of his campaign against the two-term incumbent, who declined to endorse Mamdani in either the primary or general election of last year\u2019s mayoral race because he was concerned about the now-mayor\u2019s stance on antisemitism.\n <\/p>\n

\n Avila Chevalier, meanwhile, has faced criticism for attending a pro-Palestinian rally the day after Hamas\u2019 October 7, 2023, attack on Israel \u2013 where militants killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages.\n <\/p>\n

\n Political leaders widely condemned the rally in the aftermath of the attack and Lander said earlier this month that he canceled his membership with the Democratic Socialists of America for promoting it. Avila Chevalier said she would \u201cnever celebrate the death of any human being,\u201d arguing that she attended the rally to protest against an \u201coutsized reaction\u201d to Hamas\u2019 attack, which she feared would \u201ccause the death of thousands upon thousands of people\u201d in Gaza.\n <\/p>

Read more Judge says Trump can\u2019t use Social Security data for voter roll purges<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Monday defended his remarks last week sharply denouncing the American Israel Public Affairs Committee after prominent Jewish leaders accused him of antisemitism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3404,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nMamdani defends criticism of AIPAC after being accused of antisemitism - Relocation Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=3407\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mamdani defends criticism of AIPAC after being accused of antisemitism - 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