New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani drew parallels Thursday between his own political trajectory and that of global anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela.
Mandela, who was affectionately known as “Madiba", died in 2013 at age 95. Pointing to a past television exchange between ABC’s Ted Koppel and the late South African president, Mamdani described how Koppel questioned whether Mandela’s support for Palestinian Arabs risked alienating Jewish supporters.
"It was a question so contrived that Madiba had to ask Koppel what exactly he meant," the mayor recalled, as quoted by JNS. "It is also a question that, frankly, rings familiar - one that I have been asked in similar forms many times myself, whether opposing Israeli war crimes and violations of international law somehow makes you hateful toward a people."
In his remarks during a keynote address for a Nelson Mandela Foundation leadership event, Mamdani noted that in the ABC broadcast, “Madiba refused the premise."
"Instead, he flipped it into a different kind of question - about whether a politics of universalism can exist if it is riddled with exceptions. Whether any of us are free if some of us are not," the mayor told attendees.
Mamdani emphasized the temptation to compromise under pressure, stating that it is "easier to make a concession, to relinquish a long-held belief, to abandon a principle than to hold firm."
"That was true when the world asked Madiba to compromise on apartheid," he added. "It was true when many asked him to abandon the Palestinian struggle for freedom, and it remains true today."
Mamdani also called for urgent action regarding the situation in the Middle East.
"Why must we wait until thousands more parents bury their children," Mamdani said, "until thousands more lose their limbs, their homes and their futures to come together and insist upon Palestinian freedom?"
Mamdani has become notorious for his antisemitic and anti-Israel statements and actions. During his election campaign, Mamdani refused to disavow the phrase “globalize the intifada". He was also called out for criticizing Israel on October 8, 2023 - just one day after the Hamas massacre in southern Israel.
He has repeatedly accused Israel of war crimes in its battle against Hamas in Gaza, and has vowed to arrest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he visits New York City.
Mamdani then caused an uproar on his first day in office when he cancelled executive orders related to Israel, which were issued by his predecessor, Eric Adams.
The move cancelled an order signed by Adams in June of 2025 formally recognizing the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism.
An executive order which prohibited mayoral appointees and agency staff from boycotting and disinvesting from Israel was cancelled as well.
More recently, Mamdani questioned Israel's right to exist as the nation-state of the Jewish people and called for a dramatic shift in US foreign policy and military aid.
The comments followed his labeling of the pro-Israel group AIPAC and its supporters as “monsters".
(Arutz Sheva-Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)