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This analysis was authored by the Antisemitism Research Center (ARC) by CAM:
In the wake of his recent victory in the New York City Democratic mayoral primary, Zohran Mamdani’s affiliation with the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) — a far-left political organization — deserves renewed scrutiny. DSA’s platform and public statements reveal a deeply hostile stance toward Israel, contributing to the spread of misinformation and a worsening climate of antisemitism across the United States.
DSA prioritizes anti-Israel activism. Its political platform falsely labels Israel an “apartheid” state and endorses the discriminatory Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which seeks to isolate the Jewish state economically, academically, and culturally. At the same time, the DSA platform calls on the U.S. to “stop using economic and financial sanctions to punish other countries, such as… Iran” — a regime that funds terror proxies like Hamas and Hezbollah and openly calls for Israel’s destruction.
Among the members of the BDS National Committee is the Council of National and Islamic Forces in Palestine — a coalition that includes Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), both U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs).
The BDS movement’s “Anti-Normalization Guidelines” condemn any attempt “to represent Israel alongside Arab countries as if it were a normal part of the region” and uniquely single out “Jewish-Israelis and Jewish-Israeli institutions” for exclusion — reflecting a pattern of targeted anti-Jewish discrimination.
Following the October 7th massacre in 2023, the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust, the BDS movement justified the atrocity as a “powerful armed reaction of the oppressed Palestinians in Gaza.” According to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism, “justifying the killing or harming of Jews in the name of a radical ideology or an extremist view of religion” constitutes antisemitism.
Given its proud endorsement of such a movement, it is unsurprising that DSA — along with several of its chapters and affiliates — either justified the October 7 massacre or blamed Israel for the genocidal violence Hamas unleashed.
On October 7th itself, the national DSA issued a statement expressing “steadfast solidarity with Palestine,” without condemning — or even naming — Hamas. Instead, it blamed the massacre on Israel’s “apartheid regime” and praised Mamdani’s anti-Israel activism as “an effective model for pressuring elected officials to stop providing financial support to the Israeli state.”
By vaguely stating, “We unequivocally condemn the killing of all civilians,” the statement deliberately avoided naming the perpetrators or confronting the horror of their actions, offering moral cover rather than moral clarity. This, despite the fact that a former FBI counterterrorism intelligence analyst called it “one of the worst acts of international terrorism on record.”
DSA’s New York City chapter — with which Mamdani is affiliated — promoted a pro-Palestinian rally in Times Square the following day, posting the announcement on X (formerly Twitter). Protesters at the rally chanted, “Resistance is justified,” “Globalize the Intifada,” and “Smash the settler Zionist state.”
Following public backlash, the chapter issued a partial apology for the “timing” and “tone” of the original tweet, but did not retract its support for the rally or condemn Hamas. Instead, it attempted to deflect blame, saying it was “concerned that some have chosen to focus on a rally while ignoring the root causes of violence in the region, the far-right Netanyahu government’s escalating human rights violations and explicitly genocidal rhetoric, and the dehumanization of the Palestinian people.”
DSA’s International Committee also voiced support for the attacks, tweeting on October 7, “DSA IC urges all DSA members to stand with the people of Palestine … Long live the resistance!” Several local DSA chapters — including in Salt Lake City, San Francisco, and Pittsburgh — released similar statements that either justified or celebrated the October 7th massacre.
As the Combat Antisemitism Movement’s Antisemitism Research Center (ARC) has documented, delegitimizing Israel as a “settler colonial” state fuels antisemitism on the far-left. Support for Hamas — whether direct or implied — reflects a growing ideological current that cloaks religiously fundamentalist terrorism in the language of social justice.
In 2024 alone, ARC recorded 6,326 antisemitic incidents in the United States. Of these, 4,329 (68.4%) were linked to far-left ideology. Of those, 4,174 (96.4%) were related to anti-Zionist or Israel-based antisemitism. The state of New York accounted for 668 of the incidents — the most of any state. And according to NYPD data, Jews were the victims in 345 of New York City’s hate crimes in 2024 — more than all other minority groups combined.
Any political affiliation with an organization that justifies atrocities against Jews and perpetuates antisemitic rhetoric is fundamentally incompatible with creating an environment where Jewish New Yorkers can feel safe and respected. Failure to disavow the group’s rhetoric and unequivocally condemn its justification of terror and denial of Jewish suffering should be disqualifying for holding public office.
