Many Jewish New Yorkers are feeling uneasy following Zohran Mamdani’s shocking recent upset win in the city’s Democratic primary, given his long history of antisemitic rhetoric.
Antisemitic incidents were up 18% in New York last year, with 68% of the 1,437 incidents occurring in New York City, according to the Anti-Defamation League. Mamdani has defended his refusal to condemn the phrase “globalize the intifada” or recognize Israel as a Jewish state, arguing that it could be dangerous during the current moment of rising antisemitism in the U.S.
But an investigation by Fox News reveals how deep the 33-year-old’s hatred towards Israel runs, having promoted academic boycotts of the Jewish state during his college years at Bowdoin.
Mamdani wrote 32 articles for the Bowdoin Orient during his four years at the prestigious college from 2010 to 2014, including an article in his senior year promoting an academic boycott of Israel.
“This academic and cultural boycott aims to bring under scrutiny the actions of the Israeli government and to put pressure on Israeli institutions to end the oppressive occupation and racist policies within both Israel and occupied Palestine,” wrote Mamdani, who co-founded his college’s Students for Justice in Palestine organization.
Students for Justice in Palestine has become one of the biggest drivers of anti-Israel protests on college campuses since the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre, with some going so far as to celebrate the attack.
Mamdani was taking issue in his article with Bowdoin College’s president, Barry Mills, opposing the boycott.
“Lastly, Mills regrettably makes no mention of Palestinians or Palestine. The call for the boycott comes in response to more than 60 years of Israeli colonial occupation of Palestine,” Mamdani wrote.
“When Mills speaks of the ‘free exchange of knowledge, ideas, and research, and open discourse’ in academia, he does so while privileging partnerships with Israeli institutions over basic freedoms for Palestinians, including the rights to food, water, shelter and education, which many Palestinians are denied under Israeli rule.”
Beyond his anti-Israel rhetoric, Mamdani’s college writings frequently addressed issues of race and privilege. In a 2013 op-ed, Mamdani responded to a white student who took issue with criticism of the school’s editorial page being too white by accusing him of holding “white privilege.”
“White males are privileged in their near-to-exclusive featuring as figures of authority in print, on television and around us in our daily realities,” Mamdani wrote.
“We, the consumers of these media, internalize this and so believe in the innate authority of a white male’s argument and the need for its publication. So, white privilege is both a structural and an individual phenomenon, the former propelling the latter. Therefore, even when the individual is silent, the structures continue to exist and frame our society through their existence.”
Recent polling by Slingshot Strategies finds Mamdani holding a commanding 10-point lead in the November general election, capturing 35% support compared to Andrew Cuomo’s 25%, with incumbent Mayor Eric Adams trailing in fourth place at just 11% behind Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa’s 14%.
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