Mamdani reaffirms opposition to Israel as a Jewish state in ABC interview

Mamdani also described AIPAC as “monsters” and referred to Israel’s military actions as “genocide.”

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani reaffirmed that he does not support Israel as a Jewish state, telling ABC’s “This Week” that he supports Israel only as “a state with equal rights” and opposes states that privilege one religion over another.

During the interview, ABC‘s Jonathan Karl asked Mamdani whether he supported Israel as a Jewish state after noting that the Democratic Socialists of America no longer favors a two-state solution.

“The way I see it is, equal rights for all people. And I think that that’s the truth for Israel. It’s the truth for any country in the world,” Mamdani said.

Pressed on whether he supported Israel specifically as a Jewish state, Mamdani responded, “I’ve said time and again that I support the state of Israel as a state with equal rights.”

When Karl repeated the question, Mamdani said, “I think any state that privileges one religion over the other is one that I can’t tell you I support, whether it be Israel or Saudi Arabia or anywhere else. And a lot of that comes back to a fundamental belief that we should all be considered equal, no matter what our faith is.”

The interview followed last week’s Democratic primary elections in which three Mamdani-endorsed Democratic candidates won their races after campaigning on platforms that sharply criticized Israel and accused the Jewish state of genocide during the war in Gaza.

Eight days earlier, Mamdani told supporters that “these monsters take many forms” before criticizing the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, saying AIPAC feared “democracy being allowed to run its course” and those seeking “an end to genocide and Netanyahu’s wars.”

Mamdani, who supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel, also stopped short of criticizing the Poetica coffee shop in Williamsburg for refusing service to a Jewish congressman because of his support for Israel.

Asked by Karl whether he objected to the coffee shop’s actions toward Rep. Dan Goldman, Mamdani replied, “I’ve said that I have political disagreements with Congressmember Goldman. I do believe that that’s a response that goes beyond that.”

When Karl asked whether the refusal of service was inappropriate, Mamdani responded, “No, I think — I think it’s much better to keep that critique in the way that we’ve done it.”