Israeli Minister of Diaspora Affairs, Amichai Chikli: “Mamdani Is an Overt Antisemite and Terror Supporter”
Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) National President Morton A. Klein released the following statement:
The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) condemns Communist, Jew-hating, radical Muslim, NYC Mayor Mamdani’s first acts in office, which endanger New York’s Jews and all Americans. Among other things, Mamdani immediately revoked New York City’s executive orders that protect New York’s Jewish citizens and synagogues, and appointed Israel-basher, lawyer-for-terrorists, and law enforcement opponent Ramzi Kassem as New York City’s Chief Counsel.
Mamdani immediately and despicably acted to revoke former Mayor Adams’ executive orders recognizing the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism; prohibiting mayoral appointees and agency staff from boycotting and disinvesting from Israel; and ordering a reassessment of how New York protects houses of worship (which Mayor Adams had issued following threatening riots outside a New York synagogue).
The IHRA definition is a widely-accepted essential tool for identifying and combating antisemitism, including certain forms of antisemitism that are thinly disguised as anti-Zionism. Under IHRA’s rational definition, Mamdani is an antisemite. Boycotts, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) are designed to economically destroy and delegitimize Israel, and are also being used to target and harm American Jews and their businesses, artists and academics, and to harm non-Jewish American businesses that may have some vague or alleged connection to Israel or Jewish entities.
Mamdani is an avowed anti-Zionist and BDS supporter, so his hateful, dangerous anti-Jewish revocations are sadly not surprising. For anyone who believed Mamdani’s affordability propaganda, this should be a wake-up call that Mamdani will use every lever of his power as mayor to harm the Jewish State of Israel and New York’s Jewish community.
As Israel’s Foreign Ministry aptly wrote about these dangerous revocations: “On his very first day as NYC Mayor, Mamdani shows his true face: He scraps the IHRA definition of antisemitism and lifts restrictions on boycotting Israel. This isn’t leadership. It’s antisemitic gasoline on an open fire.”
Israeli Minister of Diaspora Affairs Amichai Chikli said Mamdani is an “overt antisemite and terror supporter.”
Mamdani’s appointment of radical Muslim Ramzi Kassem—who is an Israel-hater, an opponent of law enforcement, and a lawyer for Al-Qaeda terrorists and pro-Islamic Hamas campus agitators, as Chief Counsel—is also extremely dangerous and alarming.
The NYC Chief Counsel wields immense power and influence over city policy, legislation, ethics, and legal direction, and has oversight of city agencies. Kassem’s record makes him the wrong person for this role, and a danger to New Yorkers.
In his 2017 article entitled “Rebellious Lawyering in the Security State,” Kassem describes his and his CUNY Law School organization CLEAR’s extensive work to prevent the FBI from questioning Muslims and obtaining Muslim informants. The article persistently derided law enforcement as the overly aggressive “real danger” and accused law enforcement of “demonizing” Muslims at a “new fever pitch.” Kassem consistently treated Islamic terror as an imaginary excuse for law enforcement’s efforts to uncover terror activities. For instance, Kassem’s article and organization calls for “opposition to state power that is deployed in the name of security and counterterrorism.” That opposition included Kassem’s and CLEAR’s massive efforts to convince the Muslim community not to speak with law enforcement without the interference of a CLEAR lawyer or at all. Kassem also transformed ordinary law enforcement actions into “coercion.” For instance, Kassem argued in his article that an FBI visit of agents “sometimes wearing jackets emblazoned with FBI in loud, yellow lettering, can be inherently coercive.”
Kassem and his organization thus assisted terror organizations, including in Muslim Al-Qaeda’s strategy of radicalizing the American Muslim community – a strategy described by former Chairman of the House of Representatives, Homeland Committee Chairman Peter King, and confirmed by top Obama administration members Denis McDonough and AG Eric Holder. Chairman King explained that in nine years, the Nassau and Suffolk County police departments did not receive even one tip about terror activities, despite two mosques knowing about an Al-Qaeda terrorist in the community. Instead, Muslim Imams in the mosques told community members to not cooperate, obstructed investigations, and threatened those who came forward.
Someone with Kassem’s opposition to Muslim cooperation with law enforcement is an extraordinarily dangerous choice for NYC Chief Counsel.
But Kassem’s opposition to law enforcement did not stop there. Kassem was also the lead defense lawyer for Al-Qaeda radical Muslim terrorist Ahmed al-Darbi, who was convicted by a U.S. military commission in connection with the 2002 attack on the French oil tanker Limburg; represented 15 prisoners held at Guantánamo, Bagram and other facilities holding terrorists; represents illegal aliens against ICE; and represented radical Muslim Mahmoud Khalil, an anti-Israel Algerian-Palestinian Arab who assisted the antisemitic harassment of Jewish students during pro-Hamas encampments at Columbia University.
ZOA calls on New York Governor Hochul, New York’s legislators, and federal legislators and officials to do everything possible to counteract Mamdani’s dangerous administration, including finally enacting strong anti-BDS laws and protections for synagogues at the state and federal level. We urge all Jewish, Christian, Muslim, and other leaders to speak out against these un-American policies. Silence is complicity.