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By Michael Arria for Mondoweiss
Last month, activists gathered outside New York City’s Park East Synagogue to protest an event hosted by Nefesh B’Nefesh, an organization that assists Jewish individuals in relocating to Israel.
The protest, which was organized by the Palestinian Assembly for Liberation (PAL Awda), was condemned as antisemitic by pro-Israel groups and leaders over chants of “globalize the intifada” and “death to the IDF.”
“No New Yorker should be intimidated or harassed at their house of worship,” declared New York Governor Kathy Hochul. “What happened last night at the Park East Synagogue was shameful and a blatant attack on the Jewish community.”
All eyes naturally turned to mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, who was repeatedly confronted with antisemitism smears throughout the campaign over his criticisms of Israel.
Now, on the verge of assuming power, Mamdani is attempting to navigate the city’s political terrain.
In the case of Nefesh B’Nefesh, his team attempted to criticize both sides of the issue.
“The Mayor-elect has discouraged the language used at last night’s protest and will continue to do so,” said Mamdani’s press secretary Dora Pekec in a statement.
“He believes every New Yorker should be free to enter a house of worship without intimidation, and that these sacred spaces should not be used to promote activities in violation of international law,” she added, a reference to Nefesh B’Nefesh’s connections to illegal Israeli settlements.
Just two days after the protest, a meeting Mamdani held with Rabbi Marc Schneier raised concerns among his left-wing base.
Schneier, who is president of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, said he called on Mamdani to push for legislation that would prohibit demonstrations from being held outside any house of worship, and that the mayor-elect responded positively.
In a statement released after the protest, PAL Awda reaffirmed its commitment to opposing settler recruitment sales, regardless of where they take place.
“Zionists may hide them in homes, schools, and places of worship-knowing well that state officials and the media will join them in weaponizing accusations of antisemitism against protesters,” it read.
This isn’t the first time Mamdani has faced pressure from the left, since winning the election. Several Palestine solidarity organizations and four Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) members are currently circulating a petition calling on the administration to drop NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, who Mamdani asked to remain in her current position.
Tisch is a consistent critic of recent criminal justice reform laws in NYC, including the partial end of cash bail, and she helped build the NYPD’s Domain Awareness System, a multibillion-dollar network designed to surveil New Yorkers.
She’s also an ardent supporter of Israel, and oversaw an NYPD training that identified Palestinian cultural symbols, like keffiyehs and watermelons, as antisemitic.
“Every generation has seen politicians win campaigns by speaking of liberation only to side with the state when power calls,” reads the petition. “This moment is a reminder that political victories are hollow when they become absorbed by the same institutions that perpetuate violence against our people. We will not forget, and we will not be silenced.”
Amid this pressure, Mamdani will also face an immediate test on BDS, as outgoing mayor Eric Adams just signed an executive order prohibiting city officials from taking action that would “discriminate” against Israel.
“BDS has no place in our city. The movement is antisemitic in nature and discriminatory in practice,” declared Adams.
Mamdani’s historic victory owes no small debt to Palestine organizers, many of whom mobilized behind his campaign, but how will this relationship fare once he assumes power?
“lt will be revealing to see how Mamdani handles these his early tests,” political consultant Peter Feld told Mondoweiss. “Will he overturn Adams’s new executive order against divesting from Israel? Probably yes, but what will he do about proposed legislation to keep protests away from houses of worship? How much will he change how NYPD polices protests?”
Last month, The Nation published a piece by Columbia University Ph.D candidateand activist Jonathan Ben-Menachem, arguing that New York City’s Left had to build more power in order to pressure Mamdani on the NYPD.
“Mamdani can’t beat the NYPD alone. No politician can,” wrote Ben-Menachem. “The only way to break the cops’ chokehold on city politics is to become stronger than them. Tisch’s tenure should remind us what’s at stake: Until the left can build and sustain real power in the streets, the billionaires will keep theirs in City Hall.”
Rutgers University assistant professor and labor activist Eric Blanc made similar arguments in a recent article for Jacobin.
“It’s good to push back against Tisch,” wrote Blanc. “But given how few people currently agree with us on this, the most appropriate and effective mechanism would be a tactic like a canvassing campaign to get hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers to sign a petition calling for Tisch’s ouster. That would allow — and oblige — anti-Tisch activists to go out and persuade those who either currently support her, or who don’t yet have thoughts about her one way or the other.”
Within Our Lifetime’s (WOL) Nerdeen Kiswani told Mondoweiss that such frames view party elites and pro-Israel leaders as inevitable.
“Winning an election does not give a left politician free rein; it gives a mandate from a base that fought to create independent power,” said Kiswani. “Mamdani’s decision to keep Jessica Tisch, who polices Palestinian activists, defends Zionist power, and collaborates with ICE, is a betrayal of that mandate. He should be leading the city with his base, taking on party leaders and the Democratic establishment, and building off the momentum that got him elected rather than stopping the buck with himself.”
Members of Demilitarize Brooklyn Navy Yard (DBNY), a campaign that organizes weekly demonstrations calling for the eviction of two companies from the city-owned industrial park, said a new mayor won’t alter their activism.
“Mamdani’s electoral victory doesn’t change our mission nor does it change our work,” said the group in a statement to Mondoweiss. “We hope Mamdani heeds the demands our campaign is making, as getting rid of genocide profiteers is the right thing to do, but we are not building our campaign to appeal to politicians.”
“We will continue to work to build community power from the ground up to get weapons manufacturers and genocide profiteers out of our community, whether the mayor is a centrist Democrat, Republican, or progressive, like Mamdani,” they added.
Kiswani expressed similar sentiments when asked how activists will approach the next four years.
“Activists should approach the incoming administration not as a partner to befriend, but as a force to hold accountable through relentless protests, organizing, and public pressure,” she said. “We are in a moment of ongoing genocide, and the old scripts of normal politics no longer apply.”
Michael Arria
Michael Arria is the U.S. correspondent for Mondoweiss. His work has appeared in In These Times, The Appeal, and Truthout. He is the author of Medium Blue: The Politics of MSNBC. Follow him on Twitter at @michaelarria.
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