After his recent win in the Democratic primary for New York City mayor, Zohran Mamdani’s long-standing connection to the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) — a hard-left political movement — requires close and careful evaluation. The DSA’s stated positions and public pronouncements reveal an entrenched animosity toward Israel, helping to spread misinformation and contributing to a worsening environment of antisemitism in the United States.
Anti-Israel campaigning is a central focus for DSA. Its platform falsely brands Israel an “apartheid” state and supports the discriminatory Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which aims to isolate Israel economically, culturally, and academically. At the same time, the DSA calls for ending U.S. economic sanctions on regimes like Iran, which openly funds terrorist groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah and advocates for Israel’s destruction.
The BDS National Committee includes members of the Council of National and Islamic Forces in Palestine — a coalition featuring Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), both of which are designated as Foreign Terrorist Organizations by the U.S. government.
BDS’s own “Anti-Normalization Guidelines” condemn efforts to depict Israel as a legitimate part of the region, and they explicitly single out “Jewish-Israelis and Jewish-Israeli institutions” for exclusion — a clear example of targeted discrimination against Jews.
In the aftermath of the October 7th, 2023 attacks — the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust — BDS defended the slaughter as a “powerful armed reaction of the oppressed Palestinians in Gaza.” The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism states that “justifying the killing or harming of Jews in the name of a radical ideology or an extremist view of religion” is antisemitic.
Given DSA’s explicit endorsement of BDS, it is unsurprising that the organization — including its various chapters — either justified or blamed Israel for the October 7th massacre carried out by Hamas.
On the day of the massacre itself, the national DSA issued a statement declaring “steadfast solidarity with Palestine” without condemning Hamas or even mentioning the group by name. Instead, it blamed Israel’s “apartheid regime” for the violence and praised Mamdani’s own anti-Israel activism as an effective means to pressure U.S. politicians to cut funding to Israel.
By using vague language such as “We unequivocally condemn the killing of all civilians,” the statement failed to identify the perpetrators or acknowledge the atrocity, effectively offering moral cover rather than honest condemnation. A former FBI counterterrorism analyst even described the attacks as “one of the worst acts of international terrorism on record.”
DSA’s New York City chapter — with which Mamdani is aligned — promoted a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Times Square the next day, posting about it on X (formerly Twitter). At this rally, demonstrators chanted slogans like “Resistance is justified,” “Globalize the Intifada,” and “Smash the settler Zionist state.”
After public outcry, the chapter issued a limited apology for the “timing” and “tone” of its announcement but did not withdraw support for the protest or condemn Hamas. Instead, it deflected blame, saying critics were ignoring the “root causes of violence” such as the Netanyahu government’s alleged human rights violations and dehumanizing rhetoric.
Meanwhile, DSA’s International Committee on October 7 also tweeted, urging members to support Palestine and proclaiming “Long live the resistance!” Other local chapters — including those in Salt Lake City, San Francisco, and Pittsburgh — issued statements that justified or even celebrated the massacre.
ARC research shows that framing Israel as a “settler colonial” state feeds antisemitism on the far-left. Endorsing Hamas — whether directly or implicitly — represents an ideological trend that dresses up violent religious fundamentalism as social justice.
In 2024, ARC documented 6,326 antisemitic incidents in the U.S. Of these, 4,329 (68.4%) were linked to far-left ideology, and 96.4% of those were anti-Zionist or Israel-related. New York State led the country with 668 incidents. NYPD data also showed that in 2024, Jews were targeted in 345 of New York City’s hate crimes — more than any other minority group combined.
Any political alliance with a group that justifies mass murder of Jews and spreads antisemitic narratives is incompatible with safeguarding Jewish New Yorkers’ safety and dignity. Failure to repudiate such rhetoric and unequivocally denounce terror apologism should disqualify any candidate from public office.
Prepared by the Combat Antisemitism Movement’s Antisemitism Research Center (ARC)