New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Saturday condemned statements made at a pro-Palestinian protest held Thursday night outside a Queens, New York, synagogue, The New York Times reported.
The protest was held outside a synagogue that hosted an event advertising real estate in Maaleh Adumim. Protesters called for an "intifada" and "death to the IDF," and shouted, "Say it loud, say it clear, we support Hamas here."
In a statement, Mamdani said that "the rhetoric and displays" at the demonstration were "wrong and have no place in our city."
He added, "My team is in close touch with the N.Y.P.D." about both the protest and counterprotest." The statement, which was sent to NYT, added, "We will continue to ensure New Yorkers’ safety entering and exiting houses of worship as well as the constitutional right to protest."
Later, Mamdani wrote on X, "As I said earlier today, chants in support of a terrorist organization have no place in our city. We will continue to ensure New Yorkers’ safety entering and exiting houses of worship as well as the constitutional right to protest."
Mamdani's statements follow the Combat Antisemitism Movement's (CAM) call to him to condemn the protest.
On Friday, CAM warned that the chants heard at the protest constituted explicit endorsement of terrorist violence and were intended to intimidate the local Jewish community.
Sacha Roytman Dratwa, CEO of the Combat Antisemitism Movement, said: “It is clear that anti-Semites, masquerading as pro-Palestinian demonstrators, feel increasingly emboldened now that Mayor Mamdani is in office. The mass chanting of ‘We support Hamas’ means that they support the mass murder, rape and kidnapping of Jews, and to chant this in a residential area populated by many Jewish families is meant to be violent and threatening."
“We saw in Australia how ‘Where are the Jews?’ turned into mass murder, and the chants heard in Queens last night have the same meaning and intention. Mayor Mamdani has to act before words turn into bullets, because blood will be on the hands of all those who ignored the signs before it is too late."