Mamdani Answers Anti-Semitism Question: The “Status Quo” AIPAC Is Supporting Is “Children Being Killed”
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani responds to a question about his criticism of AIPAC and endorsement of progressive Congressional candidates in the city. “AIPAC, for whom the only thing more frightening than democracy being allowed to run its course, is an end to genocide… move millions in dark money to accomplish a single goal: to preserve their power,” Mamdani said last week during an event for Democratic primary candidate Brad Lander. “So that they can turn us against one another instead of our leaders turning towards the moral change we all know to be necessary.” “When I am speaking about AIPAC, I’m speaking about an organization that has been supportive of the status quo,” he said Monday when asked about these comments “An organization that has fought any attempt to actually deliver safety to people — not just in Palestine, but frankly through much of the region. It is a status quo for immorality, it is one that I will not accept.” “I want to be very clear. We’re talking about a status quo where children are being killed on a daily basis,” he said. “More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military since the so-called ceasefire.” “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-13. Oftentimes they also support the status quo through dark money by filtering money that would have previously been directly from AIPAC, now through other shell organizations whose identities of their contributors are only made clear after an election,” Mamdani said. “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.”
REPORTER: Some members of the Jewish community, including Democratic Congressman Josh Gottheimer, were alarmed by the language you used at the rally last week, calling AIPAC “monsters who move dark money.” These are phrases that invoke old antisemitic tropes and conspiracy theories. What do you say to those who are concerned that the language you used is dangerous? ZOHRAN MAMDANI: I want to be very clear. We’re talking about a status quo where children are being killed on a daily basis. More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military since the so-called ceasefire. Even an Al Jazeera journalist, Ahmed Wisha, was killed this past Saturday by an Israeli strike. And when I am speaking about AIPAC, I’m 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. It is one that I will not accept. And 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 13. Oftentimes they also support the status quo through dark money by filtering money that would have previously been directly from AIPAC, now through other shell organizations whose identities of their contributors are only made clear after an election. And I 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.
