NYC mayoral candidate Mamdani says he’ll 'discourage' calls to 'globalize the intifada'

In a Tuesday meeting with prominent businessmen in New York City, Democrat mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani said he would “discourage” his supporters from calling to “globalize the intifada.”
“His comments came in a closed-door meeting with roughly 150 business executives at the offices of Tishman Speyer in Rockefeller Center,” the New York Times reported. “It was hosted by the Partnership for New York City, a consortium of members representing banks, law firms and corporations.”
The comments made by Mamdani in the Tuesday meeting mark a notable shift from prior rhetoric.
Mamdani sparked widespread backlash last month when he repeatedly refused to condemn the use of the phrase “globalize the intifada,” though saying he does not use the phrase himself.
In an interview with The Bulwark, Mamdani said that not all people who use the phrase mean it as a call to violence against Jews.
“Ultimately, what I hear in so many [cases] is a desperate desire for equality and equal rights in standing up for Palestinian human rights,” Mamdani said, adding that the word was used by the U.S. Holocaust Museum in an Arabic translation of a description of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
When directly asked by MSNBC whether he would condemn the phrase, Mamdani again refused to do so.
“That’s not language that I use, the language that I use and the language that I will continue to use to lead this city is that which speaks clearly to my intent, which an intent grounded in a belief in universal human rights,” he said, adding that “includes Israelis and Palestinians alike.”
“I don’t believe that the role of the mayor is to police speech,” he said after being asked the question again, but said there was “no room for anti-semitism in this city.”

The All Israel News Staff is a team of journalists in Israel.