{"id":76745,"date":"2026-05-19T02:21:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T02:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/76745\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T02:21:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T02:21:11","slug":"mamdani-doubles-down-on-nakba-video-brushes-off-snubs-to-his-jewish-heritage-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/76745\/","title":{"rendered":"Mamdani doubles down on Nakba video, brushes off snubs to his \u2018Jewish Heritage\u2019 event"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mayor Zohran Mamdani doubled down on his video commemorating \u201cNakba Day\u201d<\/a> as criticism from Jewish organizations mounted Monday.<\/p>\n

Hizzoner downplayed The Post\u2019s report on Sunday<\/a> that at least three high-profile leaders of mainstream Jewish groups were rejecting invitations to his \u201cJewish Heritage\u201d event at Gracie Mansion Monday evening over his anti-Israel rhetoric.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy message to Jewish leaders across the city is that my door is always open, that I look forward to welcoming a number of those leaders to Gracie Mansion this evening through Shavuot,\u201d Mamdani told reporters at an unrelated press conference in The Bronx.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Mayor Zohran Mamdani doubled down on his \u201cNakba Day\u201d video during a press conference in The Bronx on May 18, 2026. James Messerschmidt for NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is part of a commitment to be the mayor for everyone, and that means a mayor for those who voted for you, who didn\u2019t vote for you, who didn\u2019t vote at all, and that also means that there will be times where you will meet New Yorkers at an event, at a specific conversation out on the street, and I look forward to all of those interactions,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

One of the local leaders snubbing the mayor\u2019s event, Mark Treyger<\/a>, the CEO Jewish Community Relations Council, which organizes the city\u2019s Israel Day Parade, specifically called out Mamdani for his anti-Israel message sent out Friday evening, just before Jewish New Yorkers observed Shabbat.<\/p>\n

National Jewish groups also expressed outrage over the post about the displacement of Palestinians during the creation of Israel in 1948, noting it omitted key historical context.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Mamdani\u2019s video features testimony from Inea Bushnaq, an 88-year-old Nakba \u201csurvivior\u201d and city resident. X\/NYCMayor<\/p>\n

\u201cUsing City Hall resources to post a one-sided video about Israel\u2019s founding \u2014 omitting the UN partition plan, the Arab rejection,\u00a0the reasons that many Palestinians left, the many who stayed\u00a0and the 850,000 Jewish refugees forced\u00a0to leave Arab lands\u00a0\u00a0\u2014 isn\u2019t commemoration. It\u2019s propaganda,\u201d The Anti-Defamation League of New York and New Jersey railed in a post to X Monday morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cReleasing it right before Shabbat isn\u2019t leadership. It\u2019s provocation,\u201d the group added.<\/p>\n

But the fallout from the video didn\u2019t stop Mamdani from doubling down<\/a> on the post \u2014 which shared the story of \u201cNakba survivor\u201d and New York City resident Inea Bushnaq<\/p>\n

\u201cI firmly believe that acknowledging one people\u2019s pain does not preclude you from the acknowledgement of another people\u2019s,\u201d he said Monday, adding that it was a \u201cprivilege\u201d to share the story of Bushnaq.<\/p>\n

Follow live updates on Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s socialist agenda and the latest in NYC politics<\/a><\/p>\n

In addition to Treyger, both the \u00a0UJA Federation of New York, and\u00a0Rabbi Joseph Potasanik, executive vice president of the New York Board of Rabbis, had also said they wouldn\u2019t be attending the event at Gracie.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

ADL slammed the video as \u201cpropaganda\u201d for omitting key historical context of Israel\u2019s founding. X\/NYCMayor<\/p>\n

\u201cJewish heritage should include recognition of the state of Israel,\u201d Potasnik said. \u201cJewish history didn\u2019t end in 1946 \u2026 We will be marching in the Israel Day Parade to express our support for Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other Jewish groups also blasted the post for what they called an outrageous, one-sided take.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOk!! I\u2019m done being nice\u2026 You are putting Jews everywhere at risk by not providing historical context for this,\u201d United Jewish Teachers President Moshe Spern fumed on X.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cYou are putting Jews in harms way!! Enough is enough!!\u201d<\/p>\n

Mamdani had shared the video featuring Bushnaq to his official mayoral X account with the caption: \u201cToday marks Nakba Day, an annual remembrance to commemorate the expulsion of more than 700,000 Palestinians between 1947 and 1949 during the creation of the State of Israel and the year that followed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cInea is a New Yorker and a Nakba survivor.<\/a> She shared her story with us \u2013 one of home, tradition and memory over generations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bushnaq said in the video interview that she fled when she was nine years old after bullets came through her home.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Other Jewish groups also blasted the post for what they called an outrageous, one-sided take.\u00a0 palestineposterproject.org<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Zionists were coming into Jerusalem,\u201d Bushnaq said in the interview, which did not feature Mamdani.<\/p>\n

Mamdani posted the video to his social media channels the same day that NYPD and federal law enforcement\u00a0announced they had foiled a Hezbollah attack on a Manhattan synagogue.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet me be clear: antisemitism, violent extremism, and terrorism have no place in our city. This kind of hate is despicable,\u201d Mamdani said following the news.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The day prior, a swastika flag was raised over Manhattan\u2019s Washington Square Park <\/a>\u2013 which Mamdani called a \u201chateful anti-semitic act.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mayor Zohran Mamdani doubled down on his video commemorating \u201cNakba Day\u201d as criticism from Jewish organizations mounted Monday.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76746,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[148],"tags":[15500,43490,43486,40558,43488,43491,43487,43489,41981,553],"class_list":["post-76745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-zohran-mamdani","tag-gracie-mansion","tag-historical-context","tag-inea-bushnaq","tag-israel-day-parade","tag-jewish-heritage","tag-jewish-leaders","tag-jewish-organizations","tag-jewish-refugees","tag-nakba-day","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116598858296387928","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76745\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}