So let’s get this straight. Pro-Palestinian activists show up outside a New York City synagogue shouting slogans like “globalize the intifada” and “We need to make them scared,” and the city’s new mayor criticizes … the synagogue?
Zohran Mamdani tut-tutted the protesters, while accusing the synagogue of using its “sacred space” to boost “violation of international law.” Say what?
Let’s start with what happened outside the synagogue, which hosted a non-profit that promotes and facilitates aliyah, the return of diaspora Jews to Israel. The radical Hamas supporters claim Nefesh B’Nefesh promotes settlements in the West Bank, which is not a violation of “international law,” but is opposed by most nations that support a two-state solution. The protesters went well beyond the rhetoric of dissent, however, adopting rhetorical terror tactics explicitly:
“It is our duty to make them think twice before holding these events,” he said, referring to a gathering held inside the synagogue by Nefesh B’nefesh, a group that helps Jews immigrate to Israel.
“We need to make them scared! We need to make them scared! We need to make them scared,” he shouted, with the roughly 200 protesters in the crowd repeating each sentence in unison, a tactic the activists use to amplify their speeches without the use of a loudspeaker, which requires an additional permit. …
- Chants at the protest included:
- “Death, death to the IDF”
- “From New York to Gaza, globalize the intifada”
- “Say it loud, say it clear, we don’t want no Zionists here”
- “Resistance, you make us proud, take another settler out”
- “We don’t want no two states, we want ’48”
- “Resistance is justified”
- “No peace on stolen land”
- “Settlers, settlers, go back home, Palestine is ours alone”
The rest of these chants are marginal, but “Globalize the intifada” is an explicit call for terrorism. So too is screaming, “We need to make them scared” outside of a synagogue. Both are clear uses of terror for intimidation of political opponents. One might expect the mayor-elect of a city that has a duty to protect places of worship from terror and intimidation to address those issues directly, especially given the anti-Semitic nature of the protestors themselves.
Instead, Zohran Mamdani threw in with the protesters and suggested that the synagogue had violated “international law” by promoting emigration of Jews to Israel:
Asked to clarify the concluding caveat, Mamdani’s team says it “was specifically in reference to the organization’s promotion of settlement activity beyond the Green Line,” which “violates international law.”
— Matthew Kassel (@matthewkassel) November 20, 2025
The protest on Wednesday night, organized by a group called Palestinian Assembly for Liberation, has drawn allegations of antisemitism from Jewish leaders in the city. During it, participants shouted phrases including “globalize the intifada” and “death to the IDF” as well as insults toward pro-Israel counter-protesters like “f—king Jewish pricks,” according to reports from the scene. Police separated the protesters and counter-protesters but did not halt the demonstration.
“The Mayor-elect has discouraged the language used at last night’s protest and will continue to do so,” Mamdani’s press secretary, Dora Pekec, said in a statement Thursday afternoon.
She went on, “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.”
Pekec did not offer further comments about whether or why Mamdani believed the event at Park East Synagogue, a prominent Orthodox congregation, promoted violations of international law.
For Mamdani, the problem on Wednesday night was entirely inside the synagogue rather than outside of it. He and his spokesperson couldn’t even identify the “international law” that Nefesh B’Nefesh supposedly violates, and for a good reason: there isn’t one. Mamdani’s understanding of “international law” is as deep as his understanding of economics, which is to say, barely competent at the dilettante level. He also seems to mistake his portfolio as some sort of foreign policy authority in New York City, when the Constitution clearly reserves that to the presidency, not mayors.
This follows Mamdani’s threat to arrest Benjamin Netanyahu as part of his duty to enforce “international law”:
During a live appearance on ABC7, Mamdani described NYC as a “city of international law” that would uphold the ICC’s 2024 arrest warrants, which accused Netanyahu of intentionally attacking civilians and using starvation as a method of warfare.
“I’ve said time and again that I believe this is a city of international law, and being a city of international law means looking to uphold international law,” he said. “And that means upholding the warrants from the International Criminal Court, whether they’re for Benjamin Netanyahu or Vladimir Putin.
I’d almost like Netanyahu to travel to New York City to dare Mamdani to try arresting him. First off, traveling foreign dignitaries get security details from the federal government, so Mamdani would have to penetrate the Secret Service cordon to effect an arrest. More basically, however, New York City is not a “city of international law”; it is a city based on American law under the US Constitution, and a mayor’s writ does not include enforcing “international law” except to the extent it overlaps US law and does not violate the Supremacy Clause.
Hizzoner needs a refresher civics course, as well as a refresher economics course and a refresher history course. Mostly, however, Mamdani needs intensive treatment for moral idiocy.
Editor’s Note: Zohran Mamdani is an avowed Democratic Socialist and as the next mayor of New York City will promote radical Marxism and anti-Semitism across the nation.
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