NYC Mayoral Candidate Mamdani Defends ‘Intifada’ Phrase Amid Jewish Leaders’ Condemnation

New York City Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani, a leading candidate in the 2025 Democratic mayoral primary, has faced widespread condemnation after declining to denounce the phrase "globalize the intifada," which many Jewish leaders and organizations view as an incitement to violence and antisemitism. Mamdani described the slogan as expressing a "desperate desire for equality and equal rights" in support of Palestinian human rights and referenced the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s use of the Arabic translation of "intifada" to describe the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. However, the Holocaust Museum strongly rejected Mamdani’s comparison, calling it "outrageous and especially offensive to survivors," and emphasized that the phrase has been linked to attacks on Jews since 1987. Prominent Jewish lawmakers, including Representatives Dan Goldman, Josh Gottheimer, and Ritchie Torres, criticized Mamdani’s remarks as disqualifying and harmful to the Jewish community in New York. Mamdani maintained that there is no room for antisemitism in the city but did not apologize or retract his defense of the term. The controversy has intensified Democratic divisions over the war in Gaza and heightened tensions in the mayoral race as early voting proceeds.