Mamdani told MSNBC host Al Sharpton on “PoliticsNation” that he would now “discourage” others from using it. The 33-year-old Democratic Socialist said the shift came after a rabbi told him the phrase reminded her of bus bombings and restaurant attacks targeting Jews in Israel.
He said there was a “gap in intent” between those who use the phrase to protest Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land and the way many Jews and pro-Israel New Yorkers hear it as a threat.
The American Jewish Committee defines the phrase as a rallying cry for “aggressive resistance against Israel.”
Sharpton noted some of his own past comments had been “misunderstood,” without giving examples.
He pressed Mamdani on whether his “personal views” on intifada — mispronounced as “the intifitada” — have shifted.
Here is Mamdani’s full response:
“When we won the primary election, I said on that stage that I know that millions of New Yorkers care deeply about what happens in Israel and Palestine — and I’m one of those New Yorkers. And I commit to reaching even further, to understand disagreement, to wrestle with the complexities of those differing viewpoints, because what this city deserves is a mayor that looks not only to represent the close to 600,000 New Yorkers that voted for me, but rather the 8.5 million people that call this city home,” the candidate said.“And in the meetings that I have had since that moment, I’ve met with Jewish elected officials, with rabbis, with community leaders. And there was one rabbi that spoke to me about how that phrase, for her, brought back memories of bus bombings in Haifa, of restaurant attacks in Jerusalem. And I knew that from what she was sharing with me that she had a fear, as she said, that that could come home to New York City,” Mamdani said.
“And so in having that conversation with her, I knew that the gap between the intent that I have heard some New Yorkers share with the use of that language, of calling for the end of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land, was disconnected from the impact it was having in that same conversation I was having with that rabbi. So I have said, after having that conversation, that this is language I would discourage,” he said.
The comments marked a departure from just weeks ago, when Mamdani told NBC’s Kristen Welker on “Meet the Press” that the phrase was “not language that I use.”
At the time, he also stated that he did not view it as the role of a mayor to “police” speech.
In July, the New York Times reported that Mamdani had told a closed-door gathering he would “discourage” the use of the phrase.
Mamdani is the leading contender to replace Mayor Eric Adams (D).
He has faced a busy stretch, appearing Friday on CNN with Abby Phillip, who questioned his proposal to open five government-run grocery stores.
Mamdani recently hosted a Brooklyn town hall with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).
Sanders said he and Mamdani would “not allow” Elon Musk to become the world’s first trillionaire “if they have anything to do with it.”
“It’s important that we feel the outrage of children going hungry, people being homeless, 85 million without healthcare, [and] you got one guy — one guy — Mr. Musk, whose own wealth is more than the bottom 52% of American households,” the senator said.
“You may have seen in the papers, they want to give him a little bonus —another $800 billion-$900 billion! We are living in crazy world! Millions of people struggling to put food on the table, and making one guy a trillionaire is insane, not about what this country is supposed to be about, and we are not going to allow that to happen,” he said.
