Mamdani condemns ‘antisemitic terror’ after Hanukkah massacre — stays silent on past ‘globalize the intifada’ stance

New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani condemned the horrific Hanukkah attack in Australia as a “despicable act of anti-Semitic terrorism” and vowed to “keep New York’s Jews safe.”

Mamdani’s comments this weekend came in response to the mass shootings at Sydney’s Bondi Beach that left at least 15 people dead and dozens injured. Australian officials described the attack as an act of terrorism targeting the Jewish community.

“Another Jewish community has been plunged into mourning and loss; a bright holiday has turned into a painfully dark day,” Mamdani said in a statement. he said. “This attack is only the latest and most horrific iteration of a growing pattern of violence targeting Jewish people around the world.”

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But Mamdani, who made history last month by becoming the first Muslim elected mayor of the country’s most populous city and whose relations with many in New York’s Jewish community have been strained because of his vocal criticism of Israel, did not say whether he had changed his tune on his past reluctance to condemn the phrase “globalize the intifada.”

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Following his double-digit victory in the New York City Democratic mayoral primary in June, which sent political shockwaves across the country, Mamdani said he would “encourage” the use of the phrase, which was seen as a call to violence against Jews.

Fox News reached out to the mayor’s team on Monday but did not receive a response at the time of this report.

Zohran Mamdani gives a victory speech at the mayoral election night vigil party on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025, in New York City. (Yuki Iwamura/AP)

The mass shooting in Australia took place during a public Hanukkah event. Police said the suspected attackers were a father and his adult son. While the father died at the scene, his son was shot by the police and taken to the hospital.

The mayor, who takes office next month, noted that one of the victims was Rabbi Eli Schlanger, who “has deep ties to Crown Heights,” a neighborhood in the New York borough of Brooklyn that has long been home to a large Hasidic Jewish population.

Schlanger recently wrote a letter to the Australian prime minister urging him to be more supportive of Israel.

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Mamdani pledged: “When I become Mayor, I will work every day to keep Jewish New Yorkers safe on our streets, in our subways, in our shul, every moment of the day. Let this be a goal shared by every New Yorker, and let’s make this horrific violence a thing of the past.”

Mamdani’s statementThe message he shared on social media had been viewed more than four million times on X as of Monday afternoon.