Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani said during a Thursday night TV interview that he now discourages using the phrase “globalize the intifada” as he seeks to quell a weeks-long controversy over his repeated refusal to condemn a slogan that many Jewish New Yorkers see as an incitement to violence.
Mamdani, a democratic socialist who won the primary over former Gov. Andrew Cuomo by nearly 13% last month, told NY1 host Errol Louis on July 17 that while some New Yorkers view the saying as a call to “end the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land,” it evokes memories of violence against Jewish people for others. He gave the answer following meetings this week with some of the city’s top business and Jewish leaders who are concerned about his previous responses to the rallying cry.
Specifically, Mamdani — a fierce critic of Israel and advocate for Palestinian rights — said that he now recognizes that the term reminds many Jewish New Yorkers of the “second intifada,” a Palestinian uprising against Israel in the early 2000s that involved a series of Palestinian suicide bombings that killed Israeli civilians.
“It’s heard as a reference to bus bombings in Haifa, restaurant attacks in Jerusalem, and engenders a fear … of the possibility of those very attacks coming home here in New York City,” Mamdani told Louis. “That distance between what some intend and what others hear is a bridge that is too far, and it is why I have not used the phrase, and it is why I discourage its use.”
Mamdani shifted his stance on the controversial phrase as he seeks to grow his coalition of support going into the November general election. He is facing off against incumbent Mayor Eric Adams and Cuomo — who are both running as independents — as well as Republican Curtis Sliwa.
The dust-up around Mamdani’s stance on the expression began during an interview he did with the Bulwark Podcast just days before last month’s primary. When asked by the podcast host if the phrase made him uncomfortable, Mamdani said “I know people for who those things mean very different things.” and that he is “less comfortable with the idea of banning the use of certain words.”
Mamdani soon clarified that the saying is not “language that I use,” after his answer on the podcast drew fierce backlash from some elected officials and the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC.
“The language that I use is going to be language that is clear and language that speaks directly to the concerns of New Yorkers,” he told reporters on June 19.
Yet as Mamdani repeated that answer over the past few weeks, Jewish leaders, elected officials, and business honchos said they needed more clarity from him.
Then, during a meeting with roughly 100 CEOs organized by the Partnership for New York City on Tuesday, Mamdani reportedly committed to discouraging the use of the phrase going forward. He shifted his stance ahead of a planned Friday confab with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-Brooklyn), who said he would bring the issue up during their meeting.
Cuomo, in a Thursday night X post, responded to Mamdani’s clarified position on “globalize the intifada” by calling him “a fraud.” He charged that Mamdani is trying to “reinvent himself for the general election in an attempt to play New Yorkers for fools.”
Meanwhile, the former governor is trying to present himself differently going into the general election after his crushing primary defeat. He is attempting to show a friendlier exterior, hit the streets and speak to New Yorkers more often, and emphasize the issue of affordability, the centerpiece of Mamdani’s winning campaign.
